sagittal alignment following the kyphoplasty of acute versus chronic osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture

Background: as a minimally invasive operation, kyphoplasty has become popular in the treatment of osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture (ovcf). objectives: this study aimed to evaluate how the timing of kyphoplasty affects the parameters of sagittal alignment in ovcf. methods: in this prospective study, the patients with ovcf, who underwent kyphoplasty at our center, were recruited. pre- and post-operative vertebral height, local and total kyphosis, coronal axis, sagittal vertebral axis, pelvic tilt, lumbar lordosis, sacral slope, and spino-cranial angle were evaluated and compared between acute ovcf (kyphoplasty performed within 1 month after injury) and chronic ovcf (kyphoplasty performed after 1 month from injury) patients. results: kyphoplasty was done for 18 acute and 28 chronic ovcf patients. all of the evaluated parameters, except spino-cranial angle, were significantly improved after the kyphoplasty. a significant difference was observed between the mean lumbar lordosis improvement of the two groups (p=0.026). in particular, the mean±sd lumbar lordosis improved 6.1±6.6º in the acute patients and 0.92±7.86º in the chronic group. no other significant difference was observed between the improvement of the spinopelvic parameters in the two groups. conclusion: the timing of kyphoplasty impacts the improvement of spinopelvic parameters, as well as the reduction of pain and restoration of vertebral height.