What is a vertebral compression?
Written by:According to experts in traumatology a vertebral compression fracture is a body of the vertebrae occurs mainly by compression and, very frequently, trunk flexion.
It is a very common type of fracture in older persons, especially in women with osteoporosis that causes bone fragility in general and in the dorsal and lumbar spine in particular. Although more common in women middle-menopausal osteoporosis, it also occurs in men at a ratio of 25% of cases.This type of fracture can be caused by different causes. The most common is crushing or osteoporotic vertebral fractures due to the fragility of themselves and their loss of calcium and minerals. Osteoporosis is usually more common in women after menopause and, especially, from 70 years. Also, although less frequently in older men with osteoporosis or. Other causes which weaken the consistency of the vertebrae and fractures favor-crushing, are tumors, both benign and malignant spinal metastases and metabolic diseases.
Surgical treatment
The treatment of these injuries is conservative, using orthopedic corsets, which vary according to the level of the fracture (spine, lumbar, dorsal-lumbar), provided the fracture is stable and does not tend to progressive deformity. In cases where the fracture is not stable, it is important deformity or pain is not controlled with medical treatment, the indication is surgical.
Within surgical treatments, kyphoplasty, is a minimally invasive surgical technique percutaneous (puncture, without opening the control column and intraoperative fluoroscopy images), which involves inserting a balloon into the vertebra. Once introduced, it swells by injecting saline to restore height of the vertebra and create a space that is filled with acrylic cement to give strength and maintain this level.
Kyphoplasty is a very common technique, with low surgical risk and very low complication rate, avoiding the risks and complications of open surgery. Having vision fluoroscopy during surgery, the correct placement of the balloon is secured and then cement. It has an early recovery can usually get up to 8-10 hours after surgery and discharge from the hospital after 24 hours without the use of braces or other support.