Objective To study the impact of volume and time phase of bone cement infusion on the effect of vesselplasty.

Method Cadaveric thoracolumbar vertebral bodies were collected and divided into different groups according to the volume (3, 4, 5, 6 mL at 4 min after bone cement mixed) or time phase (4, 5, 6, 8 min as 4 mL) of bone cement injected into the bone-filling mesh container (BFMC) with 2 mL of capacity. The infusion effect was evaluated by X-ray and CT images of vertebrae and reconstructed images of cement mass. The cement permeation depth was measured on the adjusted CT image. The correlations of permeation depth with the volume and time phase of cement infused as well as interdigitation between bone and cement were analyzed.

Result All 23 specimens were osteoporotic with the average T value of －5.7±1.4. BFMCs in each volume group expanded well, with good interdigitation between cement and cancellous bone outside the BFMC. The permeation depth outside BFMC grew obviously with addition of cement volume when injecting 3-5 mL, with 0.840 of correlation coefficient (P < 0.001). Cement leakage occurred in a vertebra when injecting 6 mL cement, while rupture of a specimen occurred in 5 mL group. There were also good filling and interdigitation when injecting cement at different time phase without obvious leakage. There was no strong correlation between permeation depth and volume of cement. Deeper permeation depth and higher injecting resistance were observed at the time phase of 4 min, but the differences were not statistically significant.

Conclusion The effect of vesselplasty is related to the cement volume rather than time phase of cement infused. It recommends injecting bone cement of 1-2 mL more than capacity of BFMC at the time phase of 5-6 min.