| Newsletter Summer 2001
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Vertebroplasty: A New Treatment for Crushed Vertebrae
Stents Repair Abdominal Aneurysms
A Look at CT's & MRI's
Surgeons and Radiologists Work Side by Side
The Clinic Gets a New Name
Welcome New Physicians and Clinicians
Vertebroplasty: A New Treatment for Crushed Vertebrae
“I was changing a battery in my pickup,” explains Frank Barker. “When I picked it up, it got me.”
One of Frank’s vertebrae collapsed when he lifted the heavy battery.
“The vertebra is one of the central bones of the spine,” explains Neurosurgeon Fred Higgins, M.D. “Osteoporosis and certain cancers can cause bones to become porous and weak. The vertebral bone reaches a point where it no longer supports the weight of the body, much less any extra load. What happens then is the vertebra will collapse, much as if you stepped on a soda can and crunched it down vertically.”
The result of a collapsed vertebra is pain. In most people, the pain goes away within a few months. But in some people the pain is relentless.
Frank Barker was one of the unlucky ones. “The pain was terrible,” Frank says. “I was having fits. There was nothing I could do to ease the pain. I told my wife something had to be done.”
Retired Orchardist Bill Smith, had a similar experience. “I got to the point where I couldn’t move -- couldn’t get up and down,” he recalls. “It was very, very painful. I was in the hospital, and through x-rays, they said I had a crushed disk. Something had to be done. I didn’t care what they did as long as it would help. I was in so much pain . . .”
Both Frank and Bill met Radiologist Dr. Ian Cunningham, who recommended a procedure called vertebroplasty.
Vertebroplasty is a short, simple, low-risk procedure in which liquid cement is injected into fractured vertebrae in the spine. The cement fills tiny cracks and holes, strengthening the vertebrae and relieving pressure and pain.
Dr. Higgins explains. “The key to this procedure is having a fluoroscope . . . a real-time x-ray machine that gives us an image of the vertebral bodies in the spine.”
After a local anesthetic, a needle is inserted through a small incision in the skin. Using the fluoroscopic image, the fracture site is identified. A water soluble “dye” is injected that flows into the bone, showing up the fracture. Next, cement is injected into the fractured bone, where it fills in the weak spaces and spots, bonding it all together.
“The advantage to this procedure,” says Radiologist Cunningham, “is the bone cement hardens very quickly, so by the time they’re off the operating table it’s alread
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