[Medical Q&A] Can the lumbar vertebrae be fractured without external trauma?

Planner: Chinese Medical Association

Reviewer: Han Liqiang, deputy chief physician, Tianjin Third Central Hospital

We often see elderly people in their 70s and 80s who come to the clinic for treatment due to back pain. After examination, the doctor finds that they have lumbar compression fractures. This seems a bit incredible: How can they have a fracture without any trauma? If they have a fracture, how can they walk to see a doctor? In fact, lumbar fractures can occur even without any trauma.

Clinically, fractures like this are called osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures, and the root cause is osteoporosis. As people age, their bones will gradually become osteoporotic, which is a natural law. Of course, lumbar vertebral fractures are different from limb fractures. After a lumbar fracture, it is like a flattened bread. The main body of the vertebra is still there, but it is a little flatter than normal. Therefore, patients with lumbar fractures can often walk normally, but they will feel obvious pain when they do actions that require waist force, such as turning over and sitting up. Once a lumbar fracture is diagnosed, you can stay in bed and rest, or you can use minimally invasive surgery to inject bone cement into the fractured vertebra to relieve pain, so that you can get up and move around as soon as possible. It should be emphasized that the root cause of this fracture is osteoporosis. Therefore, once a person is older, he should undergo a bone density test as soon as possible to determine whether he has osteoporosis. Once osteoporosis is found, regular anti-osteoporosis treatment should be carried out as soon as possible to avoid the eventual occurrence of osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures.