Compression Fractures

A fracture can occur in any part of the body and can refer to a breakage in part or the whole of a bone, leaving you in severe pain, struggling with a loss of motion, or leaving the area around the site of the fracture red and swollen. However, compression fractures are a slightly different experience as they refer only to fractures within the spine and its vertebrae. There are many different types of compression fractures, which is important to know if you have a high-risk factor for this type of breakage.

These include wedge fractures, where the front of the bone breaks, leaving the back of the bone untouched, and crush fractures, where the whole of the bone breaks. Additionally, those with a compression fracture may also have a burst fracture, where both the front and the back of the vertebrae collapse to some degree.

If you have a compression fracture, you will experience severe pain in the area surrounding the breakage and throughout your spinal cord which may worsen over time. You may experience this pain more when carrying out daily activities such as pulling and lifting heavy items, or when you slip or trip when walking. This pain may become chronic if the fracture is left untreated. Your posture may also change to become hunched or stooped and you may struggle with motion as the fracture progresses.

You may also feel a sensation of numbness and your muscles may weaken. Not only this, but more serious symptoms include a loss in height due to damage to the vertebrae, permanent deformity, and crowding of your internal organs due to poor alignment.

Those who are at risk of compression fractures are usually those with osteoporosis, which goes hand in hand with this type of fracture. Osteoporosis is when your bones become increasingly brittle and susceptible to breakage over time, and this is caused by a loss of tissue due to vitamin deficiency or hormones. This means that, to change your risk factor for compression fractures, it is important to take measures to lower your susceptibility to osteoporosis through aspects such as a healthy diet and ensuring that you consume the right amount of vitamins.

However, you should not think that you will not sustain a compression fracture if you do not have osteoporosis, and there are a couple of other risk factors for these types of breaks. These include sporting injuries that can lead to trauma on the spinal cord, and if you have a tumor on the spine, or if you have a tumor which spreads to your vertebrae from another part of the body.

Compression fractures are, in some ways, more serious than other forms of fractures as they can lead to a number of permanent or long term conditions such as chronic pain, deformity and damage to your internal organs, such as the lungs and heart. There are also a number of other complications that can lead to serious and even fatal symptoms, and these include medical issues such as blood clots. These blood clots are caused by the lack of mobility that the sufferer will have during the fracture’s recovery period.

At Icon Medical, our services are personalized to find the correct method of treatment for you and your condition, such as chiropractic care, massage, pain management and advice on lifestyle changes. These can help you to recover from your fracture as quickly as possible and reduce the discomfort that you are experiencing during this time.

Although there are other treatments for compression fractures such as lifestyle changes, braces and pain medications, here at Icon Medical, our chiropractic services can help to realign your spine after a break, and relieve tension on your nervous system and organs. Not only this, but chiropractic care, and other techniques such as massage, aids circulation and boosts the body’s natural healing processes.

Chiropractic care can also help with pain relief in the spinal cord through a reduction of pressure on the nervous system, which can make managing your fracture easier. Our chiropractic services can also be combined with pain management, where our specialists combine physical therapy, massage and orthopedics to get you back on your feet.