New Treatment for Collapsing Vertebrae

**Katie** · 03-18-2011, 12:15 AM

I was just watching the late National News on CTV, and there was a story about a woman from Toronto who recently had a new procedure on her degenerating vertebrae which were causing her great pain.

The surgeon from McGill University in Montreal, Dr. Jarzam, drilled tubes into the shrunken bone and then enlarged them, somewhat like opening up a clogged artery or vein. (Sorry for the lack of technical terms here Justin

) When the vertebrae were sufficiently returned to a normal height, the surgeon then injected cement to retain the new height.

I will try and find a proper link to it tomorrow and report back. The patient gave it rave reviews, saying it took her from unbearable pain to virtually a pain free life.

**Katie** · 03-18-2011, 01:02 PM

Here is the link to the CTV news clip and two videos about the newest treatment for collapsed vertebrae from osteoporosis.

Cement offers quicker fix for fractured vertebrae - CTV News

I was mistaken about the name of the surgeon who did the procedure. It is Dr. Roger Smith, an interventional neuroradiologist at Toronto's University Health Network, rather than Dr. Jarzem of Montreal, who was speaking in the first video above.

From the time the patient first experienced severe pain from her broken vertebrae till surgery was only four months. That has to be a record. Much better than the almost five years I had to wait for out of country surgery. I'm very glad to see that progress in some areas is being made.

If you can not open the link above, please let me know, and I will cut and paste the text that accompanies the story.

**Justin** · 03-18-2011, 05:48 PM

Katie, thank you for sharing this information with the Spine Patient Society!

**Katie** · 03-18-2011, 06:36 PM

Can you open the link from south of the border, Justin? I often can't access US sites from up here.

**ajj1001** · 03-18-2011, 07:25 PM

Originally Posted by Katie

Can you open the link from south of the border, Justin? I often can't access US sites from up here.

it's working here, really interesting.

**Katie** · 03-18-2011, 10:02 PM

Oh good...even better that it can travel across the pond

I can never understand it when sites 'can only be accessed from USA' or some such thing. It happens a lot with past episodes of tv programs that I'm trying to catch up on...you know, the important things in life

**Cindylou** · 03-19-2011, 02:39 AM

Sounds like vertebroplasty to me, no? CL

**KanRunMo** · 04-13-2011, 12:07 PM

I think I must have run into this thread somewhere else since I'm thinking I already replied. I think that procedure is the same as kyphoplasty. Also my gyno recommended Forteo, a prescription that's supposed to build back bones that are compression fractures due to osteopenia or osteoporosis. It's supposed to be better than Fosamax or Boniva both oral medications. I'm not sure if it works better than Reclast which is the once a year IV for osteoporosis.

**KanRunMo** · 05-04-2011, 02:53 PM

A few weeks later: After reading again.
First - CL - The difference between kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty is that is kyphoplasty, besides a tube going down to the vertebra fracture, it also inserts a balloon to raise up the fracture so the vertebra now has the same height as it originally had. Then the bone glue is inserted through the tube and into the inflated balloon so that not only is the fracture fixed but the vertebrae is now wider. In vertebroplasty they don't insert a balloon so the fracture is fixed but not the vertebra height.
Someone (not a medical person) I talked with this morning said it has to be done within a few weeks of the fracture. I know that is preferable because the bone has not yet repaired itself but if they are inserting a tube into the bone, it seems like the balloon could also be inserted and help raise the bone height. When my fracture first showed up on an MRI, no doctor suggested kyphoplasty. I have talked with two spine surgeons recently who were listed as doing kyphoplasty and neither one suggested it to me. I'm going to find out more about this procedure and if it can be done on fractures which have existed for a while.

**Katie** · 05-04-2011, 06:50 PM

So has kyphoplasty been around for awhile in the US? The news segment said it was new here in Canada. And I didn't know the difference, so couldn't address Cindylou's thoughts. And yes, they inserted a balloon within weeks of the patient's vertebrae collapsing up here near Toronto. I hope it is a long term solution for her, and a possibility for you too.