gms | German Medical Science

Objective: Approximately 1.5 million fractures secondary to osteoporosis occur in the United States each year; 700,000 of these are spine fractures – more than hip and wrist fractures combined. We will show in this paper report the positive experience in 50 cases of osteoporotic vertebral fractures, treated with kyphoplasty in compares to others surgical techniques like vertebroplasty.

Methods: We selected 50 cases of osteoporotic vertebral fractures, with back pain, low strength deficits, chronic pain, some with initial deformity and history of minor spine traumas followed with the symptoms.

Results: The results of open surgery for this condition have generally been poor, mainly because operating on bones that are weak and soft from osteoporosis is difficult. The minimally invasive technique come with technology evolution, first with vertebroplasty, a good advance in this kind of treatment, however with other kind of risks, cement leakage during vertebroplasty wasn´t rare. Kyphoplasty gives surgeons a way to fix the broken bone without the problems associated with old technics. The goal of kyphoplasty is to return the fractured vertebra as close as possible to its normal height. This reduces pain and spine deformity (kyphosis), enabling patients to get back to normal activities. The cement used in kyphoplasty is injected at low pressure, cement leakage during kyphoplasty is rare.

Conclusions: Our results show kyphoplasty is a safe and effective method to relieve pain and correct the deformity associated with an osteoporotic VCF. All patents have a shorter time recovered and pain relieve in 90%, some deficits of strength get also better. The technique it's very secure, because the void created by the balloon inside of the vertebral body also allows for bone cement to be deposited under low pressure, thus decreasing the possibility of cement extravasation outside of the vertebral body.