Criticisms of the VAPOUR trial in a recent commentary are unsubstantiated and incorrect.

We are concerned by commentary1 about the VAPOUR trial2 written by authors of two previous masked vertebroplasty trials.3 4 Having participated in the larger of these trials, INVEST,3 we adopted similar trial methodology in VAPOUR but restricted patient inclusion criteria to fractures <6 weeks duration causing severe pain (table 1). View this table: Table 1 Comparison of inclusion criteria, baseline fracture duration and NRS pain measures, baseline hospitalisation status prior to enrolment, placebo and masking analysis, crossover and primary endpoints in the three masked vertebroplasty trials that have been published The commentary speculates that …