A study was conducted to compare the amount and duration of pain relief with vertebral augmentation to any other therapy to treat cancer-related vertebral compression fractures through meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. In a total of 180 records taken under consideration, 7 were relevant and included 476 participants. The risk of bias was considered “Low” in all the researched studies. In the 5th study, vertebral augmentation alone (either PVP or Balloon Kyphoplasty) comprised 1 group. At the same time, comparative treatments included nonsurgical management, Kiva implantation, PVP and radiofrequency therapy, PVP and chemotherapy, PVP and intrasomatic injection of steroid, and PVP with 125 seeds. For both studies, the researchers aimed to compare PVP with an additional treatment against the standard of care. Concerning changes in pain severity, the effect sizes varied from 0.0 (95%–1.7 to 1.7) to –5.1 (95%–5.3 to –4.9). Most of the studies demonstrated a positive and statistical effect related to PVP. 4 out of 7th study indicated a clinical impact as well. Other than cement leakage, with an event rate of 0.24 (95%CI 0.11–0.44) or 24(95%CI 11%–44%), there is no significant adverse event consistently observed across the multiple studies. The random controlled trials indicated an overall positive and statistical effect of vertebral augmentation surgeries, such as vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty, for treating cancer-related vertebral compression fractures, especially when compared with nonsurgical management radiofrequency ablation, or chemotherapy alone.
