ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to assess the outcomes of our patients who underwent balloon kyphoplasty for spontaneous osteoporotic vertebral fractures regarding pain relief, correction of the vertebral body height, and complications such as adjacent segment vertebral fractures

We retrospectively evaluated 63 consecutive patients (74 vertebral bodies) with vertebral body compression fracture who were treated by balloon kyphoplasty. Patients’ body mass index (BMI), bone mineral density (BMD), level(s) of the fractured vertebrae, visual analog scale (VAS) for pain intensity were noted. Local kyphosis angle (KA), and the rate of vertebral height loss (VHL) were measured. Oswestry disability index (ODI) was used to assess the disability. All the patients had a minimum follow-up of 12 months

KA and VHL as well as VAS and ODI scores significantly improved at the final follow-up (p<0.05, p<0.001 respectively). There were cement leakage in 5 procedures (6.7 %) and 11 (14.8 %) adjacent segment fractures (ASF) were detected during the follow-up.

Balloon kyphoplasty is an effective and safe procedure that can provide early pain relief, improve function and correct the deformity in spontaneous osteoporotic vertebral body fractures.