Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Percutaneous kyphoplasty has become widely recognized as an effective method to treat elderly patients with acute severe osteoporotic compression fractures, but the number of cases involved in the relevant literature is less.
OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical effect of percutaneous balloon kyphoplasty on acute severe osteoporotic compression fractures in the elderly.
METHODS: A total of 62 elderly patients with acute severe osteoporotic compression fractures (87 vertebrae) were treated with percutaneous balloon kyphoplasty, 2.5-7.1 mL bone cement for one vertebra. All the patients were followed up for over 3 months to observe changes in various indexes.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Patients receiving percutaneous balloon kyphoplasty had a significant improvement in the vertebral height and scores on visual analog scale (P < 0.01). No death or spinal cord/nerve injury occurred. Leakage of polymethyl methacrylate was found in two cases from anterior longitudinal ligament, one case from the vertebral arch, and one case from the intervertebral space. No infection and embolism happened, and the vertebral height recovered ≥75%. All patients had pain relief, including two cases of low back pain that relieved following oral administration of analgesic drug. Final follow-up results showed that the vertebral height had no changes. These findings indicate that percutaneous balloon kyphoplasty is safe and effective to treat acute severe osteoporotic compression fractures in the elederly.