Bone biopsy results of patients who underwent percutaneous vertebroplasty: clinical study

Aims: Vertebral corpus fractures (VCF) can occur after trauma, osteoporosis, benign or malignant tumors, metastases, or infections. In this study, biopsy results of patients undergoing percutaneous vertebroplasty were discussed. Methods: Digital hospital records were retrospectively reviewed and age, gender, hemoglobin, leukocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte, basophil, eosinophil, platelet, C-reactive protein, biopsy pathology result, and hospitalization day of patients who underwent vertebroplasty for VCF were recorded. In addition, preoperative and postoperative radiologic images were examined. Results: Fifty-one patients (17 males, and 34 females) were included in the study. When the patients were grouped as under and over 65 years of age, infection was found in two patients under 65 years of age, and malignant tumor was found in patients over 65 years of age. When the patients were grouped according to gender, 4 male patients had cancer or infection (one with “Brucella melitensis” in the T7 vertebra, one with “Mycobacterium tuberculosis” in the L1 vertebra, one with “poorly differentiated upper gastrointestinal tumor” in T10 vertebra and one with “multiple myeloma” in T8 vertebra). The diagnoses made in the biopsy materials had already been clinically established in all patients. Although ROC-Curve analysis revealed that gender, leukocyte, and neutrophil counts could be used as predictive markers for diagnosing “pathologic fracture” in VCF, regression analysis showed that none of these parameters could be used as the “best predictive marker”. Conclusion: This study showed that because up to 8% of patients undergoing vertebroplasty might have abnormal biopsy results, it is necessary to obtain a biopsy from these patients, especially male patients, before cementing the fractured vertebra.