ABSTRACT
Osteoporotic vertebral fractures (OVF) are the most common injuries seen in elder people. The OVF are different to a general traumatic spinal fractures in mechanisms, treatment principles and prognosis. Most studies lack details about the patterns of the fracture, thus the purpose of this study was to develop a novel classification system using empirical study approach for OVF and treatment strategy. The data were collected from July 2008 to December 2008. The 289 patients (434 vertebrae levels) were diagnosed as osteoporotic vertebral fractures. There were totally 128 males and 161 females; the average age was 78.4 years (95% confidence interval (CI) range was 50–97 years). Elderly females were more affected with OVF than males. They were all evaluated by X-ray and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Osteoporotic vertebral fractures are complex and varied, and it is difficult to develop one standard classification to cover all dimensions of the fracture patterns. This study classified four types of osteoporotic vertebral fractures within 434 vertebrae levels. One hundred and ten (25.35%) were non-active lesions and the others (324, 74.65%), were active. Fourteen (3.23%) were Type I; 109 (25.12%) were Type II; 196 (45.16%) were Type III and five (1.15%) were Type IV.
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