Interventional radiology in bone metastasis

Percutaneous interventional radiology techniques for bone metastases may be divided into pain and consolidation procedures and tumor destruction techniques. Cementoplasty, and vertebroplasty in the particular case of vertebral location, are the most popular techniques used to obtain pain relief and bone consolidation. There are efficient in skeletal locations where compressive forces predominate such as the vertebral bodies and the acetabulum. However, in bone locations where shearing forces predominate such as the vertebral neural arch or the long bones, it is necessary to combine cementoplasty with some types of percutaneous stabilization device such as bone nailing or screwing, placement of intraosseous devices or percutaneous osteosynthesis. Thermal ablation techniques include mostly heating with radiofrequency and cooling with cryotherapy and are mostly indicated in patients with a single bone metastasis. All these musculoskeletal interventional treatments have the great advantage in these fragile patients not to delay radiotherapy and chemotherapy.