[DOES KYPHOPLASTY AFFECT THE SIZE OF THE VERTEBRAL BODY?]

Introduction: Thoracolumbar compression fractures are common among the osteoporotic aging population, and a commonly accepted surgical treatment is kyphoplasty.

Aims: Our study aims to demonstrate the change in the known radiologic evaluation methods before and after the surgery.

Methods: A retrospective study, 54 patients with compression A1 fractures were included and evaluated for demographic data. Two observers independently collected data from preoperative, intra-operative, and postoperative lateral and AP radiographs. The collected data included middle vertebral height - MVH/U/D, percentage of middle height compression (PMHC), posterior vertebral height (PVH), anterior vertebral height (AVH), the width of the vertebra, calculated kyphotic angle (CKA), Kobb's and kyphotic angle.

Results: Mean age 71.3 years (11.53 SD), mean comorbidity score was 3.65 (2.0 SD), 80% were females (32), most frequent fractures were L1 and T12 (32% and 22%). Good inter-observer results were obtained in all the measurements between the two observers; 37.5 % of cases showed leakage in the postoperative films. There is a significant difference between before and after (M = 84.8, SD = 18.7), p < .001, the operation in the PMHC measurement.

Conclusions: Our study demonstrated significant improvements in many parameters, wWith great improvement in the PMHC ratio from 65% to 84%. Further studies with a greater sample of patients and patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs) are needed to define the success of the surgery.