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Cutting-edge Spine Surgery at Faith Regional
 While a balloon may not appear to be high-tech, it is providing much needed relief for many spinal patients. Thanks to a Norfolk orthopaedic surgeon and medical innovations in spinal surgery, patients at Faith Regional Health Services are walking out of the hospital within days of surgery – not weeks or months.
Balloon Kyphoplasty is a minimally invasive treatment option for patients suffering from spinal fractures due to osteoporosis. This procedure is designed to correct spinal deformity due to osteoporotic fractures, significantly reducing back pain and improving a patient’s ability to return to daily activities.
Osteoporosis is a disease that causes the bones of the spine to weaken and often collapse, resulting in spinal fractures. Traditional treatment for spinal fractures includes bed rest, medication and back bracing. While these therapies may help to decrease a patient’s pain over time, they do not treat the deformity related to the osteoporotic fractures.
“Spine fractures due to osteoporosis are more serious and prevalent than most people realize,” said Dr. Allen Sossan of Reconstructive Spinal Surgery and Orthopedic Surgery in Norfolk. “There are over 700,000 spinal fractures annually in the U.S. That’s more than hip and wrist fractures combined.” Dr. Sossan has been offering Balloon Kyphoplasty to patients for the past four years.
Balloon Kyphoplasty is designed to repair vertebral compression fractures and restore the vertebrae to the correct position, reducing back pain, reducing the number of days in bed, significantly improving mobility and increasing overall quality of life. The procedure generally takes less than one hour per fracture and has been performed under both local and general anesthesia.
In the U.S., according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, over 400,000 spinal fractures go undiagnosed and untreated due in part to lack of awareness about osteoporosis and available treatment options.
The consequences of untreated fractures can be devastating. Once a patient suffers one vertebral compression fracture, the risk of suffering a second fracture increases five-fold. Left unattended, many fractures can result in an exaggerated rounded curvature of the spine, called kyphosis or dowager’s hump. This condition is painful and debilitating — making walking, eating, sleeping, and even breathing painful and difficult. Long-term, this condition could be fatal. Diagnosing such fractures is the first step toward providing patients who have been impacted by this devastating disease state with hope for treatment.
The statistics are staggering—one in two women and one in four men age 50 and older in the United States—will have an osteoporosis-related fracture in their lifetime, with bone loss potentially beginning in women as early as age 25. This figure is projected to double in the next 50 years due to the increase in aging population and lifestyle factors, according to the International Osteoporosis Foundation. The current incidence rate has caused the World Health Organization to cite osteoporosis as second only to cardiovascular disease as a leading international healthcare problem.
Last Updated: 7/24/2006
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