Jack vertebral dilator kyphoplasty for treatment of osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures

Abstract

Osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs) are common in the elderly population and often involve the thoracolumbar vertebrae. Clinical symptoms of OVCFs include severe pain, loss of vertebral height, progressive kyphosis and increased mortality. Jack vertebral dilator kyphoplasty is a recently developed OVCFs treatment modality, with few systematic studies present in the literature. This retrospective study was designed to investigate the safety and efficacy of Jack vertebral dilator kyphoplasty for treating thoracolumbar OVCFs. Sixteen elderly patients (55-85years) with solitary thoracolumbar OVCFs were treated with this procedure and followed-up (10-27months). The amount of injected bone cement and operative time, preoperative and postoperative visual analogue scores, anterior and middle vertebral body heights, local kyphosis angle, and complications was analysed. The results showed that the method provided long-term pain relief and restoration of the vertebral body height and spinal alignment. No serious complications occurred, but two patients experienced recompression of the vertebral body, and one patient experienced cement leakage into a disc. In conclusion, Jack vertebral dilator kyphoplasty is a safe and effective minimally invasive procedure for treatment of OVCFs.