Percutaneous sacroplasty using CT fluoroscopy

Abstract

Sacral insufficiency fractures frequently cause significant pain and limit activities of daily living in patients with osteoporosis. Percutaneous vertebroplasty is a common procedure to alleviate the pain associated with thoracic and lumbar vertebral compression fractures. The sacral percutaneous vertebroplasty procedure (sacroplasty) has recently been introduced as an alternative to medical management of osteoporotic sacral insufficiency fractures. We describe our CT fluoroscopy technique in performing percutaneous sacroplasty.

Fig 1.

A, Axial pelvic CT demonstrates subtle bilateral sacral insufficiency fractures (arrows). B, Bone scintigraphy examination demonstrates increased radiotracer uptake (arrows) in the sacral insufficiency fractures.

Fig 2.

A, Axial CT fluoroscopic image demonstrates clear visualization of the injected cement in the left S1 level and the second needle on the right. B, CT fluoroscopic image during injection of the right S1 level demonstrates the cement tracts bilaterally. C, Postprocedure sacral CT demonstrates excellent cement infiltration within the bilateral sacral ala.

Fig 2.

A, Axial CT fluoroscopic image demonstrates clear visualization of the injected cement in the left S1 level and the second needle on the right. B, CT fluoroscopic image during injection of the right S1 level demonstrates the cement tracts bilaterally. C, Postprocedure sacral CT demonstrates excellent cement infiltration within the bilateral sacral ala.