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Vertebroplasty & Kyphoplasty
The structure of the human back is an amazing piece of engineering. Vertebrae and discs are held together by an intricate network of ligaments and muscles, allowing your body to bend, twist, run and carry the weight of your body and the many things you’ll lift throughout your life, such as children and grocery bags. The complexity of the back makes it prone to injury. This is no more evident than in the fact that over 700,000 Americans suffer vertebral compression fractures each year. A majority of these fractures are due to osteoporosis, a condition that affects over 44 million people in the United States.
Innovative minimally invasive solutions.
The most common methods of treating vertebral compression fractures have included pain medications, reduced activity or custom bracing, with the more severe cases warranting back surgery. However, Dr. Carl C. Balog at Oregon Pain Associates offers two minimally invasive procedures, vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty, which have proven successful in treating patients with vertebral compression fractures.
About the two procedures.
With vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty, Dr. Balog injects an acrylic “bone cement” into the fractured vertebral body through the guidance of state-of-the-art health imaging technology. This cement hardens in approximately ten minutes, fusing together the crushed bone fragments that, prior to treatment, caused pain when you moved. Kyphoplasty involves an additional step. A special balloon is inserted and inflated inside the fractured vertebra, making a space that is filled with the bone cement. The goal of this step is to restore height to the bone and reduce deformity. Both procedures take about one hour per vertebral area treated. Dr. Balog performs vertebroplasty in his state-of-the-art office and kyphoplasty at a local hospital. Both are outpatient procedures.
Ask your doctor about vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty today or call Oregon Pain Associates in Portland or Salem for more information.