Objective: Balloon Kyphoplasty is one of the important minimal invasive surgical treatments of osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. In this study, we aimed to evaluate preoperative and postoperative VAS scores and vertebral height measurements in patients whom applied unilateral or bilateral kyphoplasty.

Material and Method: We evaluated preoperative, postoperative early (2nd day) and late period (3rd month) VAS scores and preoperative, postoperative 3rd month vertebral height measurements in 26 patients whom single level Balloon Kyphoplasty was applied due to osteoporotic vertebra fracture, in 14 unilateral (Group 1) and 12 bilateral (Group 2). The vertebral height measurements were performed from the anterior, middle and posterior parts of the vertebral corpus in the sagittal images of the plain graphs or computed tomographies of the patients, where the vertebraes were seen to be mostly compressed. Statistical differences between variables were evaluated by Chi-Square test. p <0.05 was found as statistically significant.

Results: Compared to preoperative values, in the postoperative early and late periods, significantly decreased VAS scores were observed in both unilateral and bilateral kyphoplasty patients. There was no difference in comparison between the groups. Compared to preoperative values, the postoperative vertebral height values were significantly increased in both groups in the anterior and the middle parts of the corpus. No significant difference was observed in the posterior parts. Again, there was no difference in comparison between two groups.

Conclusion: Kyphoplasty is an effective treatment that reduces pain in vertebral compression fractures and restores height loss. When applied unilaterally or bilaterally, clinical and radiological results are similar.