Dr. Jayesh Pawar

• This increased fragility increases your risk for many types of fractures.
• Trauma: Traumas put a lot of stress on your bones. Your spine is usually very flexible and moves with you. But, a sudden intense force like a car accident or a sports injury can exert more force than your spine can tolerate, which causes spinal fractures.
• Spinal tumors: Most spinal tumors result from cancer metastasis - cancer that has spread from another area of your body to your spine.

will be diagnosed as your injuries are treated. You might not notice specific symptoms from the fracture itself, especially if you're treated in the emergency room.

If you do experience symptoms, they will include the following:

• Back pain: A sharp, intense pain in your back. Pain might also get increasingly worse over time, especially when you're walking or moving.
• Swelling or tenderness: The area around the broken vertebrae may be swollen and painful to touch.
• Changes to your posture: A new slump or stoop in your spine that causes you to lean forward in ways you didn't before.
• Tingling or numbness: A tingling or numb feeling in your back that might run down your arms or legs.
• Height loss: You might get noticeably shorter over time (sometimes up to 6 inches).
• Incontinence: A new loss of your ability to control your bladder or bowels.

• X-rays: A spine X-ray will confirm a fractured spine, and show how out of place your bones are.
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): Your provider might use an MRI to get a complete picture of your back and any damage inside it. This will show them tissue around your spine as well as your vertebrae. This is especially important to determine if your spinal cord is at risk of being damaged by your fracture.
• CT scan: If you need surgery, your provider or surgeon needs to know exactly how damaged your bones are. A CT scan will give them a more detailed picture of your bones and the surrounding tissue than an X-ray.

You'll probably also need a bone density test (sometimes called a DEXA or DXA scan). This will show if you have osteoporosis, and how much it has weakened your bones.

• Bracing: You might need to wear a back brace to hold your spine in alignment and help your broken vertebrae heal properly. Most people need to wear a brace for a few months. Your doctor will talk to you about which type of brace you'll need and how long you'll need to wear it.
• Physical therapy: Strengthening the muscles in your back can improve your overall strength, help reduce bone loss and reduce the risk of future spinal fractures. You might need to work with a physical therapist in person or do at-home exercises.
• Treating osteoporosis: If you have osteoporosis, your doctor might prescribe medicine or over-the-counter (OTC) supplements to help strengthen your bones to prevent future fractures.
• Surgery: If the spinal fracture is in danger of damaging your spinal cord, or if your pain doesn't improve a few months after non- surgical treatments, you might need surgery. The most common surgeries to repair fractures are vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty.
  Vertebroplasty: Your surgeon injects liquid cement into your fractured vertebrae to strengthen it. Kyphoplasty: Kyphoplasty is similar to vertebroplasty, but before your surgeon injects the liquid cement into your vertebrae, they insert a tiny balloon into them. When they inflate the balloon, it pushes your bones back into their correct place and re-creates the space that was originally there before your fracture.

These are both usually outpatient procedures, so you should be able to go home the same day. Sometimes along with Vertebroplasty and Khyphoplasty, additional stabilisation with scews and rods might be required. If required your doctor will let you know about it.