• Luca Denaro, Umile Giuseppe Longo, Rocco Papalia, Sergio De Salvatore, Laura Ruzzini, Ilaria Piergentili, and Vincenzo Denaro.
• Department of Neuroscience (Padova Neuroscience Center), University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
• Eur Spine J. 2021 Oct 1; 30 (10): 3099-3106.

PurposePercutaneous vertebroplasty (PV) is a minimally invasive technique requiring the injection of polymethylmethacrylate cement into a collapsed or weakened vertebral body to stabilize the fracture. The present study aims to determine the trends in PV procedures over the recent years. The longitudinal analysis of national registers may help to understand the yearly trends and the economic burden of PV. The evaluation of the yearly national costs of this procedure is essential to surgeons, policymaker, hospital administrator and the healthcare system. Moreover, to observe possible variation in the trend of hospitalization between countries, the data of the present study were compared to the US population.MethodsData of this study were collected from the National Hospital Discharge Reports reported at the Italian Ministry of Health regarding the years of this paper (2009-2015). The yearly number of hospital admission for PV, sex, age, days of hospitalization and primary diagnoses in the whole Italian population were calculated.Results31,887 vertebroplasties were performed in Italy, with an incidence of 8.8 procedures for every 100,000 inhabitants. Females represented the majority of patients undergoing PV. The median length of hospital stay was 4.15 days. The mean hospital reimbursement was 4,629€ for each PV hospitalization.ConclusionThe burden of vertebral fracture is relevant in the Italian population, and PV constitutes a rapid and effective treatment. Compared to other countries, the costs of PV in Italy are relatively lower; however, it is important to define the incidence of this procedure to understand the economic trend of PV.© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

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