Panel members appeared to agree with some of Dr. McKiernan's points when it came to voting on the questions put before them. When asked to rate how well the evidence addresses vertebroplasty's effectiveness on a scale of 1–5—with 1 being “poor” and 5 being “very well”—the panel's average vote was 2.0. When asked about mortality data, the panel was particularly skeptical, giving it an average score of 1.5. Results of a vote on the evidence for kyphoplasty were similar.
“As the technology diffuses a lot more, and as patients expect this, a whole group of patients you wouldn't think of doing this on will receive it,” said panel member Alexander Krist, M.D., a family physician in Fairfax, Va. “There is [an unsystematic] process for figuring out who gets it and who doesn't. That would be my fear.