THURSDAY, Jan. 22 (HealthDay News) -- In osteoporotic vertebral body fracture augmentation, calcium phosphate cement may not be a suitable replacement for polymethylmethacrylate because its use is associated with a higher risk of cement failure and subsequent loss of correction, according to study findings published in the Jan. 15 issue of Spine.

Thomas R. Blattert, M.D., Ph.D., of University Hospital in Leipzig, Germany, and colleagues randomly assigned 56 patients aged 65 and older with one or two adjacent osteoporotic fractures of vertebral bodies in the thoracolumbar spine to receive augmentation with either calcium phosphate cement or polymethylmethacrylate.

Although 52 patients experienced statistically significant pain relief, the researchers found that the calcium phosphate group had a higher number of cement-specific complications (one cement washout and nine losses of correction due to cement failure in burst fractures) than the polymethylmethacrylate group (two vascular embolisms).

"In theory, osteoconductive biomaterials on a calcium phosphate basis would appear to be excellently suited to replace the polymethylmethacrylate materials now most frequently used in balloon kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty due to their structural resemblance to the original bone substance," the authors conclude. "Many of the physico-chemical and biomechanical problems have been resolved, and many requirements have been met. Not resolved, however, have been two problems specific to calcium phosphate, namely, an increased washout tendency and a lower flexural, tractive and shear resistance."

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