Kyphoplasty with bone cement repairs osteoporotic thoracolumbar vertebral fractures associated with peripheral wall damage:a 2-year follow-up

Sun Zhi-yong; Qian Zhong-lai; Zhu Xiao-yu; Chen Kang-wu; Pi Bin; Yang Hui-lin

doi:10.3969/j.issn.2095-4344.2016.47.012

Abstract：BACKGROUND:Kyphoplasty with bone cement has achieved good therapeutic efficacy on osteoporotic thoracolumbar fractures;however, there is little report about its application in the repair of vertebral fractures associated with vertebral body wal damage, due to the risks of bone cement leakage and puncture. OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the treatment outcomes of kyphoplasty with bone cement on osteoporotic thoracolumbar fractures associated with peripheral wal damage and to assess its short-term clinical effect. METHODS:Sixty-five patients (42 females and 23 males, mean age=71.5 years) with osteoporotic thoracolumbar fractures associated with peripheral wal damage were enrol ed and treated with kyphoplasty. The anterior and mid-vertebral body height, complications, visual analog scale scores and Oswestry disability index were observed before, immediately and 1, 6 and 24 months postoperatively. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The visual analog scale scores, Oswestry disability index and Cobb angle were decreased significantly, and the anterior and mid-vertebral body height were increased significantly from pre-to post-operation (P<0.05). All above improvements appeared to have no significant changes from post-operation to 2-year follow-up (P>0.05). Cement leakage was detected in 7 cases (10 vertebrae), but did not cause severe clinical symptoms. There were no injuries to spinal nerve root and no complications of infection, bleeding, pulmonary embolism, stroke, or cardiac cerebral arrest. These findings indicate that kyphoplasty with bone cement is safe and feasible to treat osteoporotic thoracolumbar fractures associated with peripheral wall damage, leading to restoration of the vertebral height, reduction in pain, correction of the kyphotic deformity and satisfaction with the short-term curative effect.