Winchester Hospital

Repairing Painful and Debilitating Fractures Using the New Vertebroplasty Procedure

An Age-Old Problem

With an aging population, spinal fractures are becoming more and more common. For the older patient, this usually means a very painful and long recovery, which is debilitating both physically and emotionally.

In the United States, 700,000 osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures occur every year, usually in women over the age of 60, causing 115,000 hospital admissions a year. Other patients suffer compression fractures because of chronic steroid use.

The pain syndrome that follows a vertebral compression fracture often causes patients to be bed or wheelchair ridden and dependent on pain medications. On average, the pain syndrome lasts four to 10 weeks, but may persist for months or never fully subside.

A New Approach for the Relief of a Chronic and Painful Problem

Percutaneous vertebroplasty is a new, minimally invasive procedure in which a special needle is precisely inserted into the site of the fracture using advanced imaging guidance. A specially formulated acrylic bone cement is then injected into the fracture, where it fills the spaces within the damaged bone, then hardens and stabilizes the fracture.

Clinical Studies

Since the mid-1990s, radiologists have been successfully treating vertebral compression fractures resulting from osteoporosis, painful metastases and multiple myeloma. One study has shown that 90 percent of patients with age-related or steroid-induced osteoporotic fractures experienced pain relief and improved mobility within 24-hours of having vertebroplasty performed. Results of a study on percutaneous vertebroplasty in 231 patients showed a 90 percent success rate in the treatment of osteoporotic vertebral fractures and an 80 percent success rate in painful or unstable neoplastic lesions.

Who Can Benefit from Vertebroplasty?

Percutaneous vertebroplasty works by reducing or eliminating pain and providing vertebral stabilization. The patients who respond best to vertebroplasty often have compression fractures that are less than six months old, however successful treatment has been reported in properly selected patients with older fractures. Patients who suffer from severe acute back pain and debilitation due to vertebral collapse that prevents movement and requires strong pain medication are most likely to benefit from this procedure.

People with persistent spinal pain lasting more than three months, or those who require constant pain relief with strong pain medication, should consult their primary care physician to learn if vertebroplasty could help.

Research has demonstrated that early intervention may reduce the duration of acute pain and immobilization, use of pain medication, occurrence of chronic back pain, and further collapse of the treated vertebral body.

Benefits of Vertebroplasty

• Most procedures can be performed on an outpatient basis.
• Procedure is minimally invasive and general anesthesia is not required.
• Risk, pain and recovery time are often significantly reduced.

Vertebroplasty provides a minimally invasive solution and quality of life improvement for patients suffering from painful vertebral compression fractures. Dr. Richard Toran and Dr. William Korn perform vertebroplasty at Winchester Hospital. Board-certified Interventional Radiologists, they are both fellowship-trained in percutaneous interventions using guided imaging.
For more information about verte-broplasty, call Winchester Hospital Interventional Radiology, at (781) 756-7178. 

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