Vertebroplasty for painful acute osteoporotic vertebral fractures: Recent Medical Journal of Australia editorial is not relevant to the patient group that we treat with vertebroplasty

• We use vertebroplasty for patients with the most severe pain caused by osteoporotic vertebral fractures less than 6 weeks old, and have observed dramatic pain relief in this acute setting. • A recent editorial in the Journal, written by the authors of two recent vertebroplasty trials, suggested that vertebroplasty is not an effective therapy for acute osteoporotic vertebral fractures. • The trials described in the editorial sampled a very different patient cohort to the one that we treat with vertebroplasty. • Our clinical experience and most of the published literature relating to the benefits of vertebroplasty are in striking contrast to the opinions presented in that editorial.