To say that it is a “women’s disease of spine surgery” is a bit of an overstatement, but it is common in older women (menopausal women), and it is osteoporosis vertebral compression fracture. 1, why is osteoporosis easy to occur in menopausal women? In postmenopausal women, the lack of estrogen leads to a decrease in bone mass and structural changes in bone tissue, making the bone more brittle and prone to fracture. It has been confirmed that estrogen plays an important role in the growth and development of women’s bones, and it enables calcium storage in the bones. The decrease in estrogen makes the storage capacity lower than the rate of loss, and the closer to menopause the faster the loss, and once menopause is over the loss is even faster. The fastest and most rapid loss of calcium from women’s bones occurs during the first to seven years after menopause, so this is a critical time for women to take calcium supplements. It is recommended that menopausal women come to the hospital for DXA (dual-energy X-ray bone densitometry) to detect bone density for early prevention. 2. Osteoporosis often causes back pain, calf cramps and fractures. Osteoporosis often causes low back pain, usually due to microfractures of trabecular bone, caused by muscle and ligament pulling when the position changes, and vertebral compression fractures are often caused by lifting heavy objects or falling, which is the case of many short and hunchbacked grannies in rural areas, only to have become old vertebral compression fractures. 3, how to treat The traditional treatment is bed rest for 3-6 months, oral painkillers and calcium and other conservative treatment methods, some patients can be relieved of pain symptoms, but long-term bed rest and can lead to increased osteoporosis and bed sores and other complications appear. For this kind of osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture, there is an excellent treatment method, which is percutaneous vertebroplasty with little trauma and good pain relief. Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) was pioneered in 1984 by Galibert, a French radiologist, who first used percutaneous vertebral puncture to inject bone cement (PMMA) to treat vertebral hemangiomas to obtain significant pain relief. This technique was then gradually applied to patients with metastatic tumors of the vertebral body, vertebral myeloma, and osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures, and has become the main treatment method for these diseases because of its excellent efficacy and low complication rate, which was quickly recognized by physicians from various related disciplines, including radiology, orthopedics, and neurosurgery. The basic operation of PKP is the same as PVP, except that after successful puncture, the puncture channel has to be dilated and eventually an 8 G working cannula is placed, then a special balloon is inserted into the diseased vertebral body to expand it to restore its height and form a space in the vertebral body, and then bone cement is injected. PKP is mainly used for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures, and the less invasive PVP is currently preferred by scholars.