What should I do if an elderly person has a compression fracture of the spine? Once a compression fracture of the spine has occurred, the principles of diagnosis and management are as follows: First, not only should the fracture be determined by x-ray, CT and MRI, but the patient should also be carefully examined for nerve compression such as numbness and weakness in the legs, as well as numbness in the perineum and anus and difficulty in defecating. If these conditions are present, the fracture is often a burst fracture and the first step is to free the compressed nerve, so decompression internal fixation surgery is often required. This procedure requires general anesthesia, is relatively invasive and risky, and requires careful examination and evaluation before it can be performed. For elderly people with osteoporosis, the above-mentioned symptoms of nerve compression after fracture are still relatively rare. Patients often present with more pronounced lumbar pain and difficulty turning over, which can be identified as a compression fracture of the spine when combined with imaging performance, and most often occurs in the thoracolumbar segment of the vertebrae from the thoracic to the lumbar inflection. Bed rest is required after the fracture to alleviate the pain caused by movement of the fracture end during activity and to reduce further collapse of the vertebral body during the acute phase of the fracture. Analgesic drugs such as oral loxoprofen and tramadol; drugs such as calcitonin can also be injected intramuscularly to reduce the bone loss caused by bed rest while relieving pain. After 2-3 weeks of bed rest, you can assess the pain when turning and moving in bed and when trying to sit up. If the pain has subsided, conservative treatment can be continued and bed mobility can be started and gradually increased with a brace by about a month. For elderly people who are still in severe pain after 2-3 weeks of bed rest treatment following a fracture, a minimally invasive puncture procedure called kyphoplasty is an option. This procedure requires only local anesthesia. After a local anesthetic is administered with a syringe in the patient’s back, a small half-centimeter-long incision is made and a puncture needle is inserted through the skin into the fractured vertebrae. The spinal vertebrae that had been fractured and collapsed regain strength and height; the incision requires only one stitch. The incision was closed with a single stitch, and the patient was able to get up and move around the day after surgery, with a hospital stay of only three or four days. This procedure can significantly reduce fracture pain and prevent further collapse of the vertebrae causing severe hunchback deformity, and at the same time can correct the kyphosis of the spine by bracing. Therefore, elderly people with spinal compression fractures should not be in a hurry, and they will get good results by following the above method step by step, through conservative or minimally invasive surgical methods.