Abstract:[Objective] To compare the clinical outcomes of unilateral versus bilateral percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP) for spinal metas- tases. [Methods] A retrospective study was conducted on 51 patients who received PKP for spinal metastasis complicated with pathological fracture in our hospital from April 2019 to April 2020. According to doctor-patient communication results, 28 patients underwent unilateral PKP, while the remaining 23 patients received bilateral PKP. The perioperative, follow-up and imaging data of the two groups were com- pared. [Results] All the 51 patients had PKP performed successfully without serious complications. Although there were no statistically sig- nificant differences between the two groups in terms of postoperative ambulation time and hospital stay (P>0.05) , the unilateral group had significantly less intraoperative blood loss, whereas significantly higher bone cement leakage rate than the bilateral group (P<0.05) . The op- eration time in unilateral group was significantly shorter than the bilateral group (P<0.05) , the bone cement injection volume in bilateral group was significantly higher than the unilateral group (P<0.05) . During the follow-up period lasted for more than 12 months, 9 patients developed similar fractures in the adjacent vertebral body, and 3 patients died due to the aggravation of the primary tumor. The VAS, ODI and KPS scores showed significant curve changes over time in both groups (P<0.05) , however, there was no statistical significance in the abovementioned scores between the two groups at any corresponding time points (P>0.05) . In terms of imaging evaluation, the unilateral group proved significantly inferior to the bilateral group in term of bone cement distribution (P<0.05) . The height of injured vertebrae signif- icantly increased, while the local kyphosis angle significantly decreased postoperatively in both groups compared with those before surgery (P<0.05) , whereas there was no statistical difference in the above imaging indicators between the two groups at any corresponding time points (P>0.05) . [Conclusion] Both unilateral and bilateral PKP do effectively improve the quality of life for vertebral metastasis, by con- trast, the bilateral PKP reduce the risk of bone cement leakage, while improve the bone cement distribution in the vertebral body during oper- ation.