ABSTRACT
Objective Minimally invasive treatment of orthopedic diseases is the general direction of future development of medicine.This study was designed to observe the effect of manual reduction combined with percutaneous kyphoplasty (MR+PKP) in the treatment of fresh osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures ( OVCF) in elderly patients. Methods Sixty OVCF patients aged 60-86 ( mean 72.3) years were randomly assigned to 2 groups of e-qual number to be treated by MR+PKP and PKP alone, respectively. Comparisons were made between the two groups of patients in the op-eration time, volumeand permeability of the bone cement injected,changes of the Cobb angle,restoration of the anterior height of the compressed vertebral bodies,pre-and post-operative Visual Analogue Scale ( VAS) pain scores, OswestryDisability Indexes ( ODIs) , and other differences observed before and aftersurgery. Results Op-erations were performed successfully in all the 60 cases.In the MR+PKP group, the mean operation time was 61 min, the mean volume of bone cement injected was 5.1mL with qualified distribution, and bone cement leakage occurred in 1 case without adverse reaction. Statistically significant differences were found in the pre-and post-operativeanterior height of the compressed vertebral bodies, Cobb an-gle, VAS scores, and ODIs (P<0.05).Compared with the PKP control, MR+PKP achieved a significant increase at 3 days and 3 months after surgery in the anterior height of the compressed vertebral bodies ([22.4±1.4] vs [26.8±8.1] mm and [21.4±4.2] vs [26.5±7.2]mm, P<0.05), and a decrease in the Cobb angle ([8.6±2.7] vs [8.1±2.1]°and [9.0±2.3] vs [8.3±1.8]°, P<0.05) as well as remarkably reduced VAS scores (4.1±2.2vs 3.1±2.0, P<0.05)and ODIs (23.0±3.1vs25.6±3.3, P<0.05) at 3 d postopera-tively. Conclusion MR+PKP, with its advantages of effective pain-relief, improvement of the height of compressed vertebral bodies, and reduction of bone cement leakage,is better than PKP alone for the treatment of OVCF in elderly patients.