Development of a research agenda for skeletal intervention: Proceedings of a multidisciplinary consensus panel

It has been estimated that by 2030, nearly 20% of the U.S. population will be 65 years of age or older, and as a result medical and public attention will gravitate toward the diseases affecting the older population and the minimally invasive procedures that can be utilized to treat them [1]. Osteoporosis is a serious public health threat for an estimated 44 million Americans, or 5% of people 50 years of age and older [2]. Osteoporosis, a debilitating disease characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, can lead to bone fragility and an increased susceptibility to fractures [3]. In the U.S., 10 million individuals are estimated already to have the disease and almost 34 million more are estimated to have a low bone mass, placing them at increased risk for osteoporosis [4]. The majority of the annual 1.5 million osteoporosis-related fractures are located in the spinal region, including about 700,000 vertebral fractures [5–9]. Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty are minimally invasive procedures that can be utilized in the treatment of painful osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. Vertebroplasty is a minimally invasive image-guided treatment performed mainly by interventional radiologists but also by orthopedic surgeons/neurosurgeons. It stabilizes the collapsed vertebra with the injection of polymeric bone cement into the spine. Kyphoplasty is a procedure that involves inserting a small balloon into the collapsed vertebra. The balloon is inflated to compress the bone peripherally, creating a cavity, and then cement is injected