Tumor Needle Tract Seeding Following Percutaneous Vertebroplasty.

ABSTRACT

Metastatic vertebral compression fractures pose a significant clinical problem to cancer patients including pain, spinal deformity, and neurologic deficit. Treatment of metastases to the spine is complex and challenging and may require local and systemic therapies. Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) was adopted to treat spinal metastases since its introduction during the late 1980s. The main indications for PVP in the treatment of spinal metastases are analgesia and spinal stabilization. Complications of PVP in malignant compression fractures are more common than in nonmalignant ones. We present 1 case of tumor seeding along the needle tract of a breast cancer patient who had undergone PVP.