Percutaneous Osteoplasty under Fluoroscopy and Cone-Beam CT guidance for Painful Sternal Metastases

Abstract Background: Although percutaneous osteoplasty (POP) has been widely accepted and is now being performed for the treatment of painful bone metastases outside the spine, there are only scarced reports regarding osteoplasty in painful sternal metastases.Case presentation: The paper reported four patients with painful sternal metastasis who underwent POP under fluoroscopic and cone-beam CT guidance. The patients were three men and one woman (mean age, 66.25 years). Primary tumor location in lung is 3 cases, in thyroid is 1 case. In these cases, Pain was measured using a numerical rating scale (NRS), with scores ranging from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain imaginable). The scores on the NRS in the four patients before POP were 9, 8, 8, and 9. After POP, the NRS scores decreased to 2, 3, 2, and 2, respectively, in follow-up at 6 months. Conclusions: POP is a safe and effective treatment for pain caused by metastatic bone tumors in the sternum. However, care and at tention should be paid to the insertion of a needle and cement distribution for better treatment effect