January - March, 2003

Technology

Procedure provides back pain relief

Patricia Flood, 70, is battling arthritis, knee replacement surgery and osteoporosis, things she says, “happen as you get older.” Flood, like many other people, didn’t realize she was fighting a war against osteoporosis until her body was in so much pain she could not stand it any longer.
“I was getting ready to have knee surgery and took a fall,” Flood says. “I ended up breaking my pelvis and four ribs. At that time, I didn’t know that I had osteoporosis, but I was on pain medication because my back just hurt so badly.”
It would be another year after that accident before Flood was diagnosed with osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis is a disease that causes bones to become weak and more likely to break. These broken bones often referred to as fractures, usually occur in the hip, spine and wrist. It cannot be denied that this “silent disease” is a continuously growing public health threat.
The National Osteoporosis Foundation reports approximately 44 million Americans will be affected by osteoporosis, and while it is thought of as an older person’s disease it can strike at any age.
St. John’s orthopedic surgeon Fred McQueary, M.D., says osteoporosis is responsible for more than 1.5 million fractures a year and that while most people associate osteoporosis with hip fractures, the most common fracture caused by osteoporosis actually occurs in the spine.
He says more than 1000 spine fractures occur each year in the United States. These fractures can be very painful and can have serious long-term consequences, and fractures in the spine can be seen in many forms such as severe back pain, lung problems and loss of height or spinal deformities such as stooped posture or humpbacks.
“It only takes a small fall to break a bone when someone has this disease,” McQueary says. “People may not realize they are suffering from osteoporosis until one small bump or fall causes a fracture or vertebrae to collapse, that’s why it is called the ‘silent disease’, because there are no symptoms.”
One way of taking care of fractured vertebrae is now offered through St. John’s Orthopedic Association. McQueary and Todd Harbach, M.D. are two of the first surgeons in the Springfield region to use the KyphX Inflatable Bone Tamp, a surgical balloon, to relieve the pain of a VCF, vertebral body compression fracture.
McQueary and Harbach have been working on this project for about two years. This procedure is successful in treating some types of back fractures. Bone cement is used to straighten the back and relieve pain.
Patricia says since she underwent kyphoplasty surgery she has forgotten about any pain she used to have in her back.
“I have been on all kinds of pain medication,” Patricia says. “So, I was willing to have the surgery done and was in the hospital for about six days. The only thing I remember about it is that the pain stopped immediately, and I haven’t had any back pain since.”
Harbach says that with weaker bones, a person’s spine alignment changes and there is more stress and pain placed on the spine, limiting the activities a person can do.
To avoid osteoporosis, McQueary and Harbach both say prevention starts when you are young because as you get older your risk increases.
“Women can lose up to 20 percent of their bone mass in the five to seven years following menopause, making them more susceptible to this dreadful disease, and their chances are increased every time they have a baby,” Harbach says. “Good prevention tactics are taking 1500 mg of calcium a day and having a bone density (PIXI) test.”