How Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery Might Help Your Compression Fracture From Osteoporosis

Compression fractures are a common complication associated with osteoporosis. A mild fracture may not cause you too much discomfort, but a more severe compression fracture can cause you a lot of pain and make you reliant on pain medications. Your doctor might recommend surgery to treat compression fractures due to osteoporosis.

This is usually a minimally invasive spine surgery that results in pain relief and sometimes a correction in the shape of your spine. Here's what happens when you have a compression fracture and how this minimally invasive spine surgery helps.

What Happens With A Compression Fracture

A compression fracture can happen from something as simple as a cough. When you have osteoporosis, your bones become weak and at a high risk of fracture when you fall or jolt your spine. A compression fracture causes one side of a disc between your vertebrae to compress and cause nerve pain. The compression leaves the disc slanted so your posture can be affected too. This can cause you to develop a hump in your spine.

How Spine Surgery Helps

The hump in your spine is called kyphosis and the surgery done to correct the condition when it's caused by disc compression is kyphoplasty. Vertebroplasty is a similar surgery that's also done for this problem. These surgeries are done by using a needle that's passed through your skin and inserted in the damaged area of your spine. With vertebroplasty, the doctor inserts bone cement into the fractured bone to seal it.

With kyphoplasty, the doctor inserts a balloon first and uses it to raise the vertebra to its original height before injecting bone cement into the area opened up by the balloon. This procedure can restore the shape of your spine to eliminate the hump. This procedure is done on each of the compressed vertebrae in your spine.

Lifting the bone relieves nerve compression and reduces pain. However, the procedure has to be done before the bone heals with your spine in a humped position.

Why Minimally Invasive Surgery Is A Good Choice

With minimally invasive spine surgery, you won't need large incisions on your back, so you won't have big scars. The doctor can also avoid cutting through muscles in your back since instruments can push the muscles aside as they advance toward your spine. With less cutting and less blood loss, you'll heal quicker after minimally invasive spine surgery. Plus, you may not need general anesthesia, and that lowers your risk of side effects and complications.

You might still need to wear a back brace and undergo physical therapy in your recovery, but you may be able to go about many of your usual activities shortly after the procedure. 


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