In addition to the studies includes in the MEL report of 2008, we identified nine recent studies assessing benefits and harms of both interventions for this update. The evidence for benefits of kyphoplasty compared to conservative treatment increased based on the results of the first randomised controlled trial (RCT). In contrary to non randomised studies and RCTs comparing vertebroplasty with conservative treatment, results of two recent placebo controlled RCTs showed no advantage of vertebroplasty over a placebo intervention. For the direct comparison of both interventions there are still no RCTs available.