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Summary
Kyphoplasty is one of the latest advances in treating the most severe spinal fractures caused by osteoporosis. The procedure is minimally invasive, and it brings significant pain relief to patients who until recently had limited treatment options for severe osteoporatic spinal fractures. After treatment, some patients will feel immediate pain relief and others will feel pain relief or elimination within two days.
Medical Application

The procedure stabilizes patients with severe spinal fractures from osteoporosis.

Who is it used on?

  • Patients with spinal compression fractures.

What does it do?

  • Restores the vertebra to the proper position
  • Reduces vertebral fractures
  • Partially reverses skeletal deformity
Steps of the Procedure
  1. Make a small incision in the back and insert a narrow tube through the back to the fractured vertebra.
  2. Using X-ray images, insert balloon-like devices through the tube.
  3. Gently inflate the devices within the vertebral body to lift crushed vertebra to the correct physical position.
  4. Fill the void, where the balloons were, with a bone cement called PMMA.
  5. It is an injection with little pressure.
  6. The cement is used in joint replacement and vertebropasty procedures.
  7. The procedure takes 20-40 minutes.
  8. Wake Radiology does not use general anesthesia on kyphoplasty patients.
  9. Patients need to stay one night in the hospital after the procedure.
Results

In patients with osteoporosis, kyphoplasty has the greatest potential to correct skeletal deformities in acute vertebral compression fractures. 

  • Stabilizes fractures
  • Reduces the number of vertebral fractures
  • Partially reverses skeletal deformity

Recovery time

  • Varies
  • Some see results after a few hours
  • Some patients need a week to recuperate
History of the Procedure

Historically, the only thing that could be used to battle osteoporosis was the use of strong narcotics and back braces.  There was essentially nothing that could be done to stop or reverse the disease until about 15 years ago. 

1984 - A surgical technique called “Percutaneous Vertebroplasty” was developed in France. 

1995 - Doctors in the USA began to use the procedure in 1995.

Kyphoplasty, an extension of vertebroplasty, evolved to treat patients with severe spinal fractures. 

1998 - The Food and Drug Administration approved the KyphX Inflatable Bone Tamp, which is used in kyphoplasty like a balloon to lift the vertebra to its correct physical position.

Current - approximately 30 centers in the USA are conducting a randomized controlled study comparing kyphoplasty to conventional medical therapy for the treatment of osteoporatic vertebral fractures.  

2003 - Dr. Carroll Overton of Wake Radiology began offering the procedure.
Facts about Osteoporosis
  • Osteoporosis weakens the bones and increases the risk of fractures.
  • Patients with the disease are at increased risk for spinal compression fractures.
  • 25 million Americans have osteoporosis.
  • About 80% are women.
  • One out of every 40 men has osteoporosis.
  • 700,000 vertebral fractures occur in the United States each year due to osteoporosis.
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