page_title: Vertebral compression fracture
section_title: Treatment
hierarchical_section_title: Vertebral compression fracture / Treatment
caption_attribution_description: English: Coronal and sagittal planes of a CT scan of a 78 year old woman, showing the intravertebral vacuum cleft sign.
context_page_description: A compression fracture is a collapse of a vertebra. It may be due to trauma or due to a weakening of the vertebra. This weakening is seen in patients with osteoporosis or osteogenesis imperfecta, lytic lesions from metastatic or primary tumors, or infection. In healthy patients, it is most often seen in individuals suffering extreme vertical shocks, such as ejecting from an ejection seat. Seen in lateral views in plain x-ray films, compression fractures of the spine characteristically appear as wedge deformities, with greater loss of height anteriorly than posteriorly and intact pedicles in the anteroposterior view.
caption: A potential complication of a vertebral compression fracture is avascular necrosis of the vertebral body, which is called Kümmel's disease, and may appear with the intravertebral vacuum cleft sign (at white arrow in image).[4]
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