The procedure was performed for the first time in Northwest Ohio, last January, at the Center for Vascular and Interventional Radiology, at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center,in Toledo. The patient remains awake during the duration of what is described as a simple outpatient procedure. A local anesthetic is given to keep the patient pain-free and calm, while the radiologist uses imaging techniques, such as CT scanning and fluoroscopy, to guide placement of the needle during the procedure. This allows the doctor to see through the skin to the spine with a minimum of radiation. The procedure generally last for about an hour.
Most patients go home the same day or the next morning.
Potential patients include those suffering from pain unrelieved by narcotics and whose mobility has been significantly diminished. It also helps to verify that the posterior wall of the vertebral body is intact, which is necessary to confine the flow of the cement-like glue. With the aging of the population, increasing numbers of elderly patients are suffering from vertebral compression fractures due to osteoporosis. The disease becomes debilitating as gradual bone density loss results in collapsing vertebrae, the column of 33 bones functioning to hold the body upright. In addition to relieving the chronic pain associated with vertebral fractures caused by osteoporosis, vertebroplasty can prevent a continued loss of height which happens as the vertebra continues to fracture.