Spinal Cord Injury Caused by Bone Cement after Percutaneous Vertebroplasty - One Case of Long-term Follow-up and the Result of Delayed Removal -

Abstract

Among the complications of percutaneous vertebroplasty, bone cement leakage into the spinal canal doesn't happen very often, but this could provoke a severe neurologic deficit. It is not certain whether this neurologic deficit may be permanent or reversible. Yet if the bone cement is left in the spinal canal, trivial events such as minor trauma could worsen the neurologic symptoms. The authors treated a 75-year-old female patient with Nurick's grade IV neurologic deficit, which was due to cement leakage into the spinal canal after previous vertebroplasty of T8 and T9. She had been having a neurologic deficit for 9 years, and it became aggravated after a minor trauma to Nurick's grade V. After the cement in the spinal canal was removed, her neurologic symptoms were improved to Nurick's grade II. Leaving a cement mass in the spinal canal may be a risk factor for additional neurologic injury even when suffering only a minor trauma, and the neurologic symptoms can be improved after removal of the cement, even for the case with a long-term neurological defect.