Faculty Collaboration Database

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

11/22/2014

Pubmed ID

25414003

DOI

10.3174/ajnr.A4095

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-84927523757

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 BP

Author

Sean Tutton MD Vice Chair, Professor in the Radiology department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Evidence-Based Medicine
Fractures, Compression
Humans
Information Dissemination
Internet
Kyphoplasty
Spinal Fractures
Treatment Outcome
Vertebroplasty