How to care for elderly people after lumbar spine fracture surgery

Lumbar spine fractures in the elderly mainly refer to vertebroplasty of the lumbar spine and generally require absolute bed rest on the first postoperative day, especially in the first 6 hours after surgery. The main purpose is for further polymerization of the bone cement, as well as its complete sclerosis, and also to reduce bleeding in the surgical area. From 6-24 hours postoperatively, the patient is asked to adhere to axial turning to reduce lumbar distortion. Attention should also be paid to the patient’s vital signs, state of consciousness, observation of sensation and activity of both lower limbs, as well as the state of urination and defecation, so as to facilitate early postoperative detection of complications. From the first postoperative day, the patient can be asked to wear a lumbar girth to get out of bed, and at the same time, straight leg raising exercise and resistance knee extension exercise of both lower limbs should be performed, mainly to exercise the strength of quadriceps and reduce the adhesion of nerve roots. When wearing the lumbar girth to get out of bed, patients are required to walk with a walker, mainly to avoid falls. Starting from the 2nd-5th postoperative day, patients were asked to perform functional exercises for the lumbar back muscles, the purpose of which was mainly to exercise the strength of the lumbar back muscles and restore the protection of the lumbar spine by the lumbar back muscles. Throughout the functional rehabilitation, patients are required or advised to pay attention to gradual progress, not to increase the amount of exercise too early or too much on their own, mainly in order for the patient not to feel fatigue.