Critique of the analysis of UpToDate.com on the treatment of painful vertebral compression fractures: time to update UpToDate. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 2015 Apr;36(4):631-6
Date
11/22/2014Pubmed ID
25414003Pubmed Central ID
PMC7964295DOI
10.3174/ajnr.A4095Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84927523757 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)Abstract
The treatment of painful vertebral compression fractures has changed substantially since the introduction of vertebroplasty in the mid-1980s and balloon kyphoplasty in the late 1990s. Both procedures were widely accepted with the vertebral fractures treated reaching 150,000 per annum in 2009 prior to the publication of 2 randomized controlled trials comparing vertebroplasty with a sham treatment published in the New England Journal of Medicine in August 2009. Since then, there has been a flood of information on vertebral augmentation and balloon kyphoplasty. It is worth evaluating this information especially because it relates to current recommendations that are often followed blindly by medical and administrative groups unfamiliar with either the procedure or the high level of evidence surrounding vertebral augmentation. To streamline the evaluation of some current recommendations, we limited the analysis to the recommendations found on UpToDate.com. This Web site is an evidence-based, peer-reviewed source of information available for patients, doctors, health insurance companies, and population-based medical decision-making.
Author List
Beall DP, McRoberts WP, Berven SH, Ledlie JT, Tutton SM, Parsons BPMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Evidence-Based MedicineFractures, Compression
Humans
Information Dissemination
Internet
Kyphoplasty
Spinal Fractures
Treatment Outcome
Vertebroplasty