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MINI-SYMPOSIUM ON OSTEOPOROSIS Vertebral deformities in the osteoporotic spine and early experience in vertebroplasty

Of the 360 patients aged 65 and above admitted consecutively within a period of 3 years to a regional hospital because of genuine back pain, 288 of them were found to have osteoporotic spinal deformities. The radiological features of these vertebral deformities were reviewed by the author and grouped according to the classification detailed by the European Vertebral Osteoporosis Study Group. Three major types were identified: the wedge, biconcave, and the crushed. The wedge and crushed types can be further defined according to their fracture patterns, their distribution on different curvatures of the spinal column, and their likelihood of complications. Wedge deformity of the thoracolumbar junction was the most common. It affected either a single level (D12 or L1), or two levels (D11 and L1), with a spared level in between. The present study in the pattern of osteoporotic deformities has helped in selecting the vertebrae for vertebroplasty, a procedure aimed at alleviating back pain in relation to osteoporotic spinal deformities.