My 79 year old father has Parkinson's disease and osteoporosis. He has recently been diagnosed with a Sacral Insufficiency Fracture (SIF), likely precipitated by a fall that occurred a couple weeks ago. He was in the hospital for several days for diagnosis and pain management, during which time one of the doctors mentioned that they might consider sacroplasty (injection of a glue/cement like substance into the fracture to stabilize it and reduce pain). From the reading that I have done this procedure is often used on elderly, osteoporodic patients with success. In many cases the patient regained their mobility within days of the procedure, rather than weeks or months.

In the end the doctors decided to forgo this option with my father, choosing instead to take the conservative approach of bed rest and time. When asked about this decision, the doctors said they felt my father's osteoporosis was to severe to make sacroplasty a good option. Namely they were worried that the extra weight from the glue could actually have a negative effect.

My father has since been moved from the hospital to an acute rehab unit of a nursing care facility. His pain is being managed with medication, but the doctors do not want him to engage in any weight bearing activity for several weeks. The problem with this is each day that he lays in bed he gets weaker both physically and mentally. His Parkinson's has already slowed him down tremendously. I believe the only reason he was still going (prior to the fall) was the careful management of his medications and his twice weekly trips to the physical therapist.

I am looking for advice from anyone familiar with SIF in osteoporodic patients. I can not seem to find any studies or reports of similar situations in which sacroplasty was not used because of the stage of the osteoporosis.