I fell through my attic and landed on concrete so hard, two of my vertebrae burst. That was six months ago. I’m recovering slowly but now the X-rays show the vertebrae are starting to curve more. The doctor called this kyphosis. No one seems to be able to tell me how bad this will get. What do you think?

Burst fractures of the spine occur most often after a traumatic injury such as a fall or car accident. The force of a sudden, severe load up or down through the spine can cause the vertebrae to burst into small pieces.

If any of those bone fragments press into the spinal canal and push on the spinal cord, neurologic problems can develop. Back pain can also occur if bone fragments move into any of the soft tissues surrounding the spine.

Increased kyphosis or forward curvature of the spine is not uncommon after burst fractures. Only a few studies have been done in this area. But what has been reported is that the kyphosis seems to stop progressing about six months after the injury. It’s not likely to get worse after this amount of time.

It doesn not appear that the kyphosis is linked with symptoms or function later. In other words, back pain and disability are not worse in patients who develop a kyphosis after burst fractures of the spine.

With advances in imaging technology, current studies may be able to shed more light on this. MRIs and CT scans provide better pictures of the spinal canal compared with plain X-rays. There is some evidence that the spine can remodel itself after fracture repair.