What Patients Can Expect
Procedures are typically performed with conscious sedation rather than general anesthesia. Recovery is usually quick, with many patients noticing early improvement in pain and swelling. Hospital stays are often short, depending on the treatment approach. We aim to treat patients in a single session, but some patients require an overnight stay while clot-dissolving medication is given and a second procedure session the next day.
- Overview
During the procedure, an interventional radiologist advances needles through the back muscles and into the broken bone under Xray guidance. They then gently lift the collapsed part of the vertebra with a tiny balloon and then fills the space created with a special medical cement to stabilize the bone and restore some height. It usually takes less than an hour, uses local or light general anesthesia, and most patients go home the same day.
- Benefits
Follow-up care focuses on:
- Ensuring veins remain open
- Adjusting anticoagulation therapy as needed
- Reducing the risk of recurrence
- Preserving long-term vein function
- Who it’s for:
- People with long-term knee pain from osteoarthritis who haven’t had enough relief from medicines, injections, physical therapy, or other non-surgical treatments
- Patients who want to avoid or delay knee replacement surgery
- Those with recurrent knee pain caused by persistent bleeding into the joint.
Related in Women's Health
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- Evaluation and treatment of symptomatic pelvic varicosities through a multidisciplinary pathway.
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Book or inquire about this procedure
Mayfair’s interventional radiologists perform general IR procedures at Rockyview General Hospital and interventional vascular procedures at the Peter Lougheed Centre in Calgary.