Figure 2

The intravertebral cleft detected on the supine lateral radiograph. A 93-year-old male patient with T12 severely collapsed vertebral compression fracture (VCF) with preoperative VAS score of 9, vertebral height (VH) ratio of 24.5%, and a kyphotic angle of 31.9° on the preoperative standing lateral radiograph (StLR) (A). The supine lateral radiograph (SuLR) (B) revealed an intravertebral cleft (IVC) and the VH ratio and kyphotic angle were reduced to 39.9% and 14.1°, respectively. We performed T2-weighted MRI (C) to confirm the level of symptomatic VCF at 12 weeks after a fall from standing height, which showed an IVC with fluid sign. The postoperative StLR (D) showed that the VH ratio and kyphotic angle were restored to 60% and 24.3°, respectively. The VAS score of this patient decreased to 3, 1, and 0 points at day 1, 1 month, and 4 months, respectively, post operation. (* T12 vertebra)