TUESDAY, Nov. 10 (HealthDay News) -- During treatment of presumed osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures, obtaining bone biopsies may lead to the discovery of unsuspected malignancies, according to a study published in the Oct. 15 issue of Spine.

Sander Paul Jan Muijs, M.D., of Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and colleagues analyzed 78 bone biopsies which were obtained during percutaneous vertebroplasty procedures performed in 78 patients (mean age, 73 years) with 141 assumed osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures.

The researchers found that seven (9 percent) of the biopsies could not be interpreted due to poor quality. They also found that three (3.8 percent) of the biopsies revealed a previously undiagnosed malignancy, including two cases of multiple myeloma stage IIa and one case of chondrosarcoma grade I.

"We recommend routine obtainment of a vertebral body bone biopsy, preferably using a biopsy needle with a diameter over 2.1 mm (0.083 inch/14 Gauge), during every percutaneous vertebroplasty procedure," the authors conclude.

Abstract
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