Filler materials for augmentation of osteoporotic vertebral fractures

In the recent years augmentation of vertebral compression fracture has been widely used with satisfactory clinical results. The filler materials for use in vertebral body augmentation have to meet many requirements. They should be biocompatible, be able to stabilize the fractured vertebral body, and their biomechanical properties should approximate those of cancellous bone. Furthermore, for a minimally invasive method that involves percutaneous injection of bone substitutes, the materials should be injectable and possess good radiopacity for the fluoroscopically guided procedure. At the present, polymethylmethacrylate is the most commonly used filler material for vertebral body augmentation. Due to the lack of bioactivity of polymethylmethacrylate that remains as an inert material in the bony tissue, new resorbable filler materials like calcium phosphate cement are increasingly in the focus of interest. In the following paper, the currently used filler materials for vertebral body augmentation and their characteristics are presented.