80. Radiation treatment of painful vertebral hemangiomas

Abstract

Aim

The aim of this study was to assess efficacy of radiotherapy as a method of vertebral hemangiomas treatment.

Material and method

The material contains 14 cases of irradiated painful vertebral hemangiomas. All patients were treated using conventional fractionation scheme (df = 2 Gy) up to 20, 24 or 30 Gy. The lesion reossification and degree of pain relief and correlations between it and different biological and technical factors were evaluated one and six months after treatment completion.

Results

One month after treatment complete pain relief was in 36% of cases (mean degree of pain relief – 70%), five months later in 67% of cases (mean degree of pain relief – 90%), but in all cases some pain relief was noted. No correlation between treatment outcome and different biological and technical factors was found. No dose-response relationship was noted. Partial reossification was found in five cases six months after treatment.

Conclusion

Obtained results suggest that radiotherapy of vertebral hemangiomas is easy, effective analgetic treatment even when doses of 20–24 Gy are used and that anti-inflamatory effect of radiation plays the main role in this kind of treatment.