Aside from the fact that they can be painful, vertebral compression fractures are not easy to deal with. Because it’s an actual fracture – as the name does suggest – you will be in considerable pain, which can only get worse as you keep moving the vertebra and it doesn’t have enough time to heal. Even if you stay completely motionless for hours on end (which isn’t a good idea at the best of times) it might still be very slow to heal, and eventually the fractured vertebra will simply collapse, causing a substantial amount of added pain.
If left untreated, the resulting scenario will likely be the one depicted above. However, aside from the pain and discomfort involved, there’s also the problem that the surgery or procedure required to treat the fracture will be much more complex. For starters, if you don’t want an invasive surgery, you’ll probably have to get a procedure like vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty. This type of procedure involves injecting special sealing cement into the fracture in order to close it and allow it to heal. However, if the vertebra has already collapsed, this type of procedure might be more difficult to apply, or you might even need a more advanced surgical intervention.
Your best choice when you know that you’re suffering from a vertebral compression fracture is to contact a reputable kyphoplasty near me Fort Collins medical specialist and get the problem solved as quickly as possible.