I learned a new word today - kyphoplasty

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I have a small rolling stepstool I use to reach high places. Probably most houses have one. Used it for decades. This model has a small sidestep between the top and floor. I was standing on the top and trying to go back down. My foot reached out for the in-between step … and missed.

One blur later I was lying on my back wedged between a chair and the wall, in extreme pain. If there ever was an “oh, shit” moment, this was it. Doctor, pain pills - opioids don’t react well with me so no relief, MRI.

Told them I couldn’t wait for an appointment in the most convenient MRI facility, so they offered one in the place on the opposite side of the county. I jumped on it even though it hurt even to sit in a car. Got there to a blank stare. No appointment. Why? It was canceled. Who canceled it? They didn’t know. Why was it canceled? They didn’t know. Why wasn’t I notified that it was canceled? They didn’t know. Rescheduled for Saturday. Told it would take three to seven days to get results. Seven days later, at 7:39 on a Friday, they came back. 20% compression fracture of the L1 vertebra. Call a doctor? No. This is Friday before the three-day weekend.

By a miraculous coincidence I already had an appointment with my PCP for Tuesday. He’s going to put in an urgent request with a specialist to see if I qualify for a kyphoplasty. OK, there’s the word.

Of all the possible treatments I saw while searching Google, kyphoplasty looked to be my best option. Minimally invasive, go straight home, pain relief within days by inserting a small balloon to relieve the compression. My concern is my previous history of spine surgery that I’ve talked about. I have a cage on the L5-L4 vertebrae, another cage on the L4-L3 vertebrae, and stenosis on the L3-L2 vertebrae that for various reasons surgery is not recommended for. I’m running out of spine.

Has anybody here had a kyphoplasty? I’d like to have some real-world experiences to know what to expect when I see the specialist. If you’ve had some other procedure to deal with a fractured vertebra please tell me about that as well. With the complicated mess inside my spine - I spent a year undergoing progressively more serious procedures to deal with my current pain and the inside of my spine was too crushed even to get wires in the right place - a more invasive alternative might be necessary.

Any hopeful words out there?

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I’m a little concerned about your previous problems.

But what I read kypholasty seems a relatively simple and safe option.

You know your pain issues, just make it plain to staff.

Good luck.

I bit the rug up close and personal like, recently. Ribs and face. Painful for 2 weeks.

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No medical advice, but I’m rootin’ for ya!

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This^^.

Best of luck navigating both the administration and the healing.

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I can’t help but contrast your experience with mine.

In December last year, I got out of bed at about 3 am and promptly colapsed onto the floor. Trying to get up caused excruciating pain, so my wife called an ambulance. Two paramedics arrived about half an hour later, and after doing all the usual checks, they loaded me into the ambulance and took me to the local hospital.

On arrival in A&E I was parked in a corridor for an hour or so because they were very busy. When I was eventually seen by a doctor, she sent me off for an MRI, and the result showed a swollen disc on L4/5. They kept me in overnight and organised an ambulance to take me home the next day, as although I was able to walk, I needed help up my steep drive. They also gave me a frame to help me walk and some heavy-duty pain relief.

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I wish I had some experience to impart, but I don’t. I’m only posting to add my best wishes for an acceptable outcome with the least invasive procedure available.

The kyphoplasty does sound like a hopeful option. I’m sorry for your misery and hope it lasts for a comparatively short time.

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Thanks, everyone.

Kyphoplasty turns out to be relatively rare. Only a couple percent of spinal compressions are treated this way. That’s probably why I literally hadn’t heard of it before despite my history. Comments online range, as always, from miracle cure to worthless.

Still haven’t heard from the specialist. So back to waiting.

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I got compression fractures in L2 and L4 this past winter. L2 had a 20% height loss. They put me in a back brace for 3 months and pronounced me cured. Nobody mentioned kyphoplasty, though i read about it.

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That’s one of many treatments I read about. Unclear to me how doctors decided on one over others. My guess is that my age (75) and previous history dictated a more proactive treatment.

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I can speak to its cementy cousin, Vertebroplasty.

In September of 2000 I had a ladder slide out from under me and fell about 16 feet. Landed flat on both feet. Suffered what is called a vertical compression fracture of the L-3.

Long story short it never healed up. About 19 months later I had a Vertebroplasty. Once I determined it was a good course of action to stabilize an unstabilized fracture, I did some Googling. ( Back when it worked. ) Wanted to find the hospital in the NYC area that did more of them per month than anyone else. Montefiore in The Bronx. I called, explained what I was hoping to do. The Radiosurgery person said the head of the Department would call me back. He did. I met up with him a few weeks later with all of my XRays and MRIs in hand.

He informed me that as of that date, I was the youngest patient- and surely youngest male- he’d ever taken on for the procedure. It was designed to immediately cement/fuse a fractured bone. Prior to this technique, an older osteoporotic person ( usually female but not always ) would fall, fracture a vertebra. Lay in bed hoping it would heal. Get Pneumonia. Die.

Now, the cement is injected through the fracture and solidifies in less than 10 minutes, becoming by far the hardest and hardiest element in their body. ( Besides teeth, I’d wager ).

Because the L2-L3 disk was mostly intact I was not a candidate for Kyphoplasty. It was invented in 1998 and may not have been available anyway.

At ANY rate, the cement did harden up wicked fast.

I’d take a moment here to mention something quite impactful that NOBODY told me about. Not my surgeon, not the Internet. Nothing.

The cement is essentially a blend of surgically sterile Krazy-Glue, antibiotic powder and a powder that allows the cement to be viewed in realtime as it is injected by Floroscopic TV ( X-Ray t.v. ). The cement is Exothermic, which means that as it hardens it generates heat. So does the cement they made your sidewalk out of.

What happens when extreme heat is generated in a closed space surrounded by soft spinal disk tissue and scar tissue? Things get burned. Everywhere.

The pain post-procedure was severe and almost completely due to the burning of scar tissue and disk material. Unavoidable. But DAMN. The pain lessened after a few years but…god. Just be aware of the potential for burning. Ask your surgeon about this as a possible after-effect.

It IS a miracle cure. Out-patient.No General anesthesia. Awake the whole time, with a saddle block numbing the relevant spinal area.

Cannot speak to the balloon part of the Khyphoplasty, but the cementing itself did the job remarkably well.

I clearly remember asking the Surgeon before hand, " So…this has only existed for 15 years and only 10 years in America. I’m 39. Will I outlive the cement and what happens if it does fragment?" He had no answer for me and so we both hoped for the best.

I turn 64 in 5 weeks. Plenty of OTHER spinal issues included Lumber and S-I issues. That spot? That cement? Rock-hard.

Keep us posted on this !!!

ETA: Useful Kyphoplasty development timeline.

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Ohhhh, Man. Awful news.

I’m so sorry.

May the surgery be nigh unto a miracle, and the recovery so fast and so complete that – a month post-op – you struggle to remember it at all (and I do not mean because of age-related cognitive decline <grin>).

As I frequently remind my mother (with her three-story house), and as I constantly ‘mantra’ my awfully-damned-impaired self … falls are the enemy.

Keeping you in my thoughts.

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Thanks for dropping a big bucket of glowing hot coals over my dreams!

Yeah, the risks of bone cement are huge … according to those liars in the medical community who probably also want to inject a big ball of vaccine into my spine in prep for 6G. I’ll talk to the surgeon about ice cubes, maybe even dry ice cubes.

Seriously, thanks for the heads up. Sorry you had to go through an early version of the treatment. I’m old enough that I’ve been through procedures that nobody will do anymore but thought at the time to be hot stuff. Whoops, no pun intended.

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I’m normally sooooooooooo careful about falls…