Two new studies are questioning the usefulness of vertebroplasty as a treatment for spinal fractures. The practice is nearly 20 years old -- since 1990, doctors began performing it throughout the country while patients swore by it, claiming the disappearance of pain almost immediately, without the support of any background trials or studies.

The studies, published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that vertebroplasty worked no better than placebos. However, as reported in the New York Times, "it remains to be seen whether the findings will change medical practice, because they defy the common wisdom and challenge a popular treatment that many patients and doctors consider the only hope for a very painful condition."

The treatment costs anywhere between $2500 and $3000; about 73,000 Americans shelled that out for treatment last year.

The only way the treatment standard would change, according to Dr. David F. Kallmes, the first author of one of the studies and a professor of radiology at the Mayo Clinic, is if Medicare and other insurers stopped covering vertebroplasty as a treatment option.

To read the full article in the New York Times, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/health/research/06spine.html?em