Percutaneous balloon kyphoplasty, a good minimally invasive surgical option for osteoporotic thoracolumbar compression fracture

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate balloon kyphoplasty as a surgical option for osteoporotic thoracolumbar compression fracture. The study was conducted on 30 patients from January 2014 to December 2017. The anterior vertebral height, kyphotic angle and functional evaluation by Oswestry disability index (ODI) and visual analogue scale (VAS) score were recorded preoperatively, immediate post-operatively at 3, 6, 12 months and yearly then on. All patients showed improvement in mean kyphotic angle from 16.4 ± 3.5 to 5.6 ± 1.7 post-operatively and 8.4 ± 1.6 at final follow-up. There was significant increase in mean anterior vertebral height from 51 ± 7.3% before surgery to 75.5 ± 7.4% at one day after surgery and 71.2 ± 3.2% at the last follow-up. There was significant improvement in mean VAS score from 8.1 ± 0.9 before surgery to 2.2 ± 0.4 at one day, and 2.4 ± 0.3 at final follow-up. The improvement in patients’ ODI score after surgery from 71.4 ± 3.4 to 26.0 ± 4.8 at one day and 21.2 ± 5.5 at final follow-up was noted. The mean operating time was 45.5 ± 15.5 min for each vertebra. Within first day of surgery improvement in pain relief and mobility was experienced by all patients. The orthopedic balloon ruptured in one patient and it was replaced then procedure was continued with no complications. There were no neurological complications in all cases and there was no infections and any occurrence of symptomatic pulmonary embolism. In conclusion, balloon kyphoplasty is a good minimally invasive procedure where along with reduction of pain and disability there is also restoration of sagittal alignment post-operatively.