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The burden of percutaneous vertebroplasty: an epidemiological nationwide study in Italy from 2009 to 2015

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Abstract

Purpose

Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PV) is a minimally invasive technique requiring the injection of polymethylmethacrylate cement into a collapsed or weakened vertebral body to stabilize the fracture. The present study aims to determine the trends in PV procedures over the recent years. The longitudinal analysis of national registers may help to understand the yearly trends and the economic burden of PV. The evaluation of the yearly national costs of this procedure is essential to surgeons, policymaker, hospital administrator and the healthcare system. Moreover, to observe possible variation in the trend of hospitalization between countries, the data of the present study were compared to the US population.

Methods

Data of this study were collected from the National Hospital Discharge Reports reported at the Italian Ministry of Health regarding the years of this paper (2009–2015). The yearly number of hospital admission for PV, sex, age, days of hospitalization and primary diagnoses in the whole Italian population were calculated.

Results

31,887 vertebroplasties were performed in Italy, with an incidence of 8.8 procedures for every 100,000 inhabitants. Females represented the majority of patients undergoing PV. The median length of hospital stay was 4.15 days. The mean hospital reimbursement was 4,629€ for each PV hospitalization.

Conclusion

The burden of vertebral fracture is relevant in the Italian population, and PV constitutes a rapid and effective treatment. Compared to other countries, the costs of PV in Italy are relatively lower; however, it is important to define the incidence of this procedure to understand the economic trend of PV.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Direzione Generale della Programmazione Sanitaria—Banca Dati S.D.O. of the Italian Ministry of Health for the support in providing data for this research.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopedic and Trauma Surgery, Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Umile Giuseppe Longo, Rocco Papalia, Sergio De Salvatore, Ilaria Piergentili & Vincenzo Denaro

  2. Department of Surgery, Orthopedic Unit, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, Rome, Italy

    Laura Ruzzini

  3. Department of Neuroscience (Padova Neuroscience Center), University of Padova, Padova, Italy

    Luca Denaro

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Contributions

U.G.L. and V.D. were involved in conceptualization; S.D.S., V.C. and L.R. were involved in data curation; S.D.S. and I.P. were involved in formal analysis; S.D.S. and L.R. were involved in methodology; I.P. and S.D.S. were involved in software; L.O. and V.D. were involved in supervision; P.F.C. was involved in validation; L.O., R.P. and V.D. were involved in visualization; U.G.L., V.C. and S.D.S. were involved in writing—original draft; U.G.L., S.D.S., R.P. and L.R. were involved in writing—review and editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Umile Giuseppe Longo.

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Denaro, L., Longo, U.G., Papalia, R. et al. The burden of percutaneous vertebroplasty: an epidemiological nationwide study in Italy from 2009 to 2015. Eur Spine J 30, 3099–3106 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-021-06966-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-021-06966-2

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