Taken from the Vanderbilt Register

Balloons Alleviate Spinal Pain
by Amber Coggin

A balloon is inserted to raise the collapsed portion of the bone. Doctors deflate and remove the balloon, leaving a defined cavity that can be filled with bone cement. The smaller picture shows the damaged vertebra before the procedure. (illustration by Dominic Doyle)

Doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have literally been placing balloons into patients’ backs. The new procedure, called balloon kyphoplasty, has helped patients who suffer from vertebral compression fractures (VCF), usually caused by osteoporosis, to have relief from painful symptoms and to straighten the spine.

Doctors perform the surgery by creating a small incision, forming a narrow pathway into the broken vertebra. A tiny balloon is inserted and inflated to raise the collapsed portion of the bone. The doctors then deflate and remove the balloon, leaving a defined cavity that can be filled with bone cement. The procedure can take 30 minutes for each broken vertebra.

After surgery, patients usually experience immediate pain relief and quickly return to their daily activities. Patients normally go home the same day or the day after the procedure. Depending on how long after the initial break, the procedure can help improve the height of the vertebra to where it was before the break.

The procedure has few risks involved. The two biggest risks are usually associated with problems caused by anesthesia and neurological effects on patients if the PMMA leaks into the spinal canal.

The results with this procedure have shown excellent restoration of fractures less than four months old and have a better than 90 percent success in reducing the level of pain associated with the broken vertebra.

Without treatment, VCFs can potentially lead to decreased activity and additional bone loss, further increasing the risk of future painful fractures.

In addition, patients generally can reduce pain medication consumption following kyphoplasty