Author(s)

Koichi Ota, Hirosi Nagai

Department of Anesthesia, Ebetsu City Hospital, Ebetsu, Japan.

Purpose: Osteoporotic vertebral fractures with no sign of vertebral collapse on initial radiographs, which is so-called occult vertebral fractures (VFs), exist. Occult VFs have a high rate of missed diagnosis, and the treatment of these fractures has rarely been discussed in the literature. We evaluated the effects of vertebral bone drilling for the pain due to occults VFs. Materials and Methods: Eighteen patients with painful osteoporotic occult VFs underwent the vertebral bone drilling. We evaluated the clinical outcome by comparing numerical rating scale (NRS) and activity of daily life (ADL) values between before and after the vertebral bone drilling. Comparisons were made by using Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results: The mean baseline NRS and ADL score, and the mean NRS and ALD score after the bone drilling were 8.4 ± 0.8, 2.2 ± 0.6, 2.4 ± 1.0, 4.6 ± 0.5, respectively. Among the patients, we detected significant improvements in NRS pain score and ADL score after the drilling compared with baseline score (p < 0.0002). Conclusion: Vertebral bone drilling at the site of painful vertebral compression fractures alleviated the intractable pain due to osteoporotic occult VFs.

Vertebral Bone Drilling, Osteoporosis, Occult Vertebral Fractures, Vertebroplasty, Balloon Kyphoplasty, Bone Marrow Edema

Ota, K. and Nagai, H. (2016) Vertebral Bone Drilling (Puncture) Attenuates the Intractable Pain Due to Vertebral Fractures without Collapse. Open Journal of Anesthesiology, 6, 70-75. doi: 10.4236/ojanes.2016.64012.