Minimally invasive treatment of spinal compression low back pain in the elderly

  After a fall in January, 88-year-old Wang Danyang developed severe pain in her lower back and was unable to stand and walk, so she had to stay in bed all day and had difficulty taking care of herself. After seeking medical help from many sources, she was referred to the neurosurgery department of the hospital, where a radiograph confirmed a compression fracture of the 4th lumbar vertebra. After the percutaneous puncture balloon expansion vertebroplasty, the low back pain disappeared immediately and he was magically discharged from the hospital two days later on his own.  Low back pain is a common disease in the elderly, and its root cause is mainly due to compression fractures of the spine caused by osteoporosis that irritate the nerves. As we age, the body loses calcium salts in the bone, and the vertebrae are eventually overwhelmed and compressed under their own gravity. At this time, patients feel back pain, hunching, stumbling, and difficulty in movement, which then affects appetite, sleep, triggers anxiety, and significantly reduces the quality of life. Conservative treatment mostly uses bed rest, medication for pain relief, and lumbar braces. The traditional open vertebroplasty surgery is very traumatic and requires long-term bed rest after surgery, so the efficacy is not satisfactory.  The introduction of percutaneous perforator balloon vertebroplasty from the United States has successfully cured many patients with spinal compression low back pain. The procedure uses a minimally invasive method, percutaneous puncture, drilling a hole in the compressed vertebral body, sending a special balloon into the center of the vertebral body, the expanding balloon gradually supports the collapsed vertebral body, and after the shape of the vertebral body is restored, the balloon is removed and bone cement is injected into the cavity in the center of the vertebral body through the hole, which is harder than the original bone after solidification. The spinal deformity is corrected.  The procedure is simple, requires no incision, provides immediate postoperative pain relief, and allows the patient to move around on the same day, and the vertebrae are firmly repositioned, resulting in satisfactory correction of the spinal deformity, patient safety, and reliable results.