Revised spinal injury treatment recommendations criticisedRSS Feed

The American Academy of Orthapaedic Surgeons (AAOS) has been criticised for making recommendations for spinal injury treatment without sufficient justification.

Clinical practice guidelines recently issued by the organisation urged against the use of vertebroplasty - when bone cement is injected into spinal fractures - to stabilise vertebrae, typically in those suffering from osteoporosis.

The recommendation was based on the findings of two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which Stryker Interventional Spine consultant Dr Wayne Olan claims were not carried out satisfactorily enough to justify such these guidelines.

Commenting on the recommendation, Dr Olan explained: "Randomised, placebo-controlled trials provide only an approximation of the truth.

"Information from observational outcome studies is also important because patients and physicians in the real world don't always behave like those in clinical trials."

Vertebroplasty was recently recommended for use when relieving pain caused by spinal fractures in patients with metastatic cancer by scientists that carried out a study.

News from Serious Law, specialist spinal injury solicitors

Posted by Matthew Dixon

Spinal injury may benefit from drug pump installation

10 November 2010

Doctors may have prevented a British girl with cerebral palsy from suffering spinal injury as her body grows.Francesca Vismara's mother Lorena told the Daily Express how concerned she was about how...

Read More...

RAF officer served for a year with traumatic spinal injury

05 November 2010

An RAF officer with a broken neck dismissed his injuries as a pulled muscle and continued to serve for almost a year before finding out the truth.Senior Officer Stephen Brunell, 41, from South Wales, suffered...

Read More...

Pioneering treatment gives hope to scoliosis patients

03 November 2010

An innovative procedure designed to treat spinal injury has given hope to children with scoliosis after successfully improving the condition.Nicky Bartsch was the first child to undergo the procedure at...

Read More...