From the Popular Press: What Your Patients are Reading:

Italian researchers presented what they called the “Lazarus Effect” at the Society of Interventional Radiology annual meeting in San Diego last week. The researchers found that by injecting bone cement into lesions in patients whose cancer has spread to their bones, they could alleviate pain and increase patient mobility. While it is not a curative procedure, it can go a long way to improving patients’ quality of life by letting them move around more freely and with substantially less pain. The procedure, known as osteoplasty, involves injecting bone cement into a bone lesion with the help of image guidance. A similar procedure, vertebroplasty, has been used for years in the spine. In a study of 81 patients, the majority of patients started feeling pain relief within 24 hours of the procedure. No major complications were reported, and only 5% of patients did not experience significant pain reduction.

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