Mechanical augmentation of the vertebral body by calcium phosphate cement injection

The effectiveness of transpedicular calcium phosphate cement (CPC) injection as a new treatment for osteoporotic compression fracture of vertebrae was evaluated by measuring the compressive strength and the mode of failure in vertebrae experimentally injected with CPC. Forty-five human cadaver vertebrae were divided into three groups: a control group; group A, in which CPC was injected into the upper half of the vertebral body; and group B, in which CPC was injected into the whole vertebra. The load-displacement curve characteristically had two peaks in group A, and decreased rapidly after failure in group B. The failure site was the cancellous bone immediately below the cranial endplate in the control group, cancellous bone immediately below the CPC injection area in group A, and in the CPC injection area in group B. Although mechanical strength was greatest in those vertebrae in which the entire cancellous bone was replaced with CPC, the compressive strength of the vertebrae was also increased by partial replacement of cancellous bone with CPC injection. In terms of mode of failure and mechanical gradient with adjacent vertebrae, there were several advantages for those vertebrae in which the cranial half of the cancellous bone was replaced with CPC. Received: May 29, 2000 / Accepted: September 20, 2000