Puerto Rico leads study for vertebral fracture patients

Vertebral fractures are spontaneous ruptures of the vertebra, although they also usually occur due to trauma, which is often minor, which occurs particularly in patients with weak bones sometimes caused by conditions such as osteoporosis.

For this reason, a clinical investigation is being conducted in Puerto Rico with the aim of showing how effective the results are for patients with Spinal fracture in terms of function and pain after kyphoplasty, which is a type of surgery whose purposes include stopping the pain caused by a fracture in the vertebral region, fixing the bones, and restoring the height of the lost spine.

Ian Cummings, a medical student at Ponce University of Health Sciences, is part of the team of professionals Who conducted this first study? In Puerto Rico, where the clinical efficacy of kyphoplasty is validated

Among them is Dr. Edalize Flores Caldera, scientist and anesthesiologist, Dr. Luis Cummings Carrero.

Thus, student Cummings explained in an interview with the Journal of Medicine and Public Health (MSP), the research was born of evidence of vertebral fractures, mostly present in older women with osteoporosis or osteoporosis, which have a impairment of about 23% more than any other women and do not receive medical help on time, because they are often asymptomatic and only realize they have a fracture when it is too late.

study analysis

To determine and improve patients’ condition, a rating scale was used, where those affected could report the severity of their condition. Two main factors were taken into account:

*Patients’ functions: if they could tie their shoes, if they could walk well and on a scale of 0 to 10 and were asked to rate the interference with their life functions.

*Pain: Also rated on the same scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is nothing and 10 is the worst he’s ever felt, and mostly they associate it with 6, 8, 9 and after the procedure and 12 days of recovery Inquiry again for results.

consequences

Regarding pain, a 66% reduction in the minimum clinically significant difference (MCID) or difference between before and after the procedure was shown, which, in this case, indicates a significant 30% reduction in back pain.

“We had 87 patients in the study and 98% of the patients, 86 of them, showed an MCID of 30%, which means almost all patients showed improvement,” the doctor said.

On a clinical level, the procedure works as it should, favoring patients’ quality of life, reducing the pain they feel and aiding mobility, as interference with function has been shown to improve by 51%.

This data tells us that hump straightening is very safe and will help the patient with pain and intervention. After the procedure, patients showed improvement in their daily activities and indicated that the pain did not interfere with their daily life,” he revealed to MSP.

So far, data and cases are continuing to be collected in order to have more statistics because it is the first time that this type of investigation has been conducted on the island.