Find Relief from Back Pain Due to Compression Fractures with Kyphoplasty

Americans are no strangers to back pain and most of us experience the issue at some point in our lives. While most back pain strikes the lower back, there is a common issue that develops higher up: compression fractures in the vertebrae. 

Each year in the United States, about 1 to 1.5 million vertebral compression fractures develop in people, with women over the age of 50 forming the most vulnerable group.

As specialists in all types of back pain, board-certified pain management experts Dr. Naveen Reddy and Dr. Maziar Massrour and the rest of the team at Apex Pain Specialists in Chandler, Arizona, have no small amount of expertise in the area of vertebral compression fractures. 

More importantly, we offer one of the best solutions for compression fractures: kyphoplasty. Here’s how this innovative treatment can relieve your pain and restore your quality of life.

Behind vertebral compression fractures

Before we explain how kyphoplasty works, it’s important that we understand what we’re up against. As the name implies, compression fractures occur when cracks and fissures form in the large bony rings of your vertebrae due to a loss of bone strength and density.

These cracks can weaken the vertebrae in your thoracic spine (midback), causing them to collapse in on themselves, usually inward. This explains why people with compression fractures can develop a hunch in their backs, as well as lose height as the vertebrae collapse.

The bone loss that sets the stage for vertebral compression fractures can occur naturally with age, but the issue is more acute in women who pass through menopause. This hormonal transition, which typically occurs around the age of 50-51, leads to sudden bone loss in women, who can lose up to 20% of their bone density during this transition. In fact, about half of postmenopausal women will develop a fracture and compression fractures are among the most common.

As a result of compression fractures (and there’s often more than one), people can not only lose height due to collapsing vertebrae, the issue can lead to back pain and issues with mobility.

Relieving pain and improving mobility with kyphoplasty

If you’re dealing with life-altering vertebral compression fractures, a kyphoplasty procedure is very much worth exploring.

To understand how kyphoplasty works, we’re going to explain the procedure, step by step. After making you comfortable with local anesthesia or sedation, we:

• Make a small incision and insert a balloon into the damaged vertebra
• We inflate the balloon to restore your vertebrae to its original height
• We remove the balloon
• We inject a special cement into the newly created space in your vertebra so it can hold the upright position
• We remove the needle

Rest assured, we use advanced imaging to guide us during your kyphoplasty procedure.

Benefits of kyphoplasty

There are some great benefits that you can gain with the kyphoplasty procedure, such as:

• No hospital stay as we perform a kyphoplasty on an outpatient basis
• No large incisions or stitches
• Little to no blood loss
• Quick recovery

And the best part? Kyphoplasty represents a minimally invasive solution that can restore your height and get you back on your feet and moving with less pain.

If you’d like to see whether you’re a good candidate for kyphoplasty, please don't hesitate to call our office at 480-820-7246 today to schedule a visit. You can also use our online booking tool to request an appointment.