Step through Vertebroplasty on the model

When a weak bone in your spine cracks and squashes down, it can cause severe back pain. The doctor fills the broken bone with medical bone cement through a hollow needle in your back, with no surgical cut and no stitches.

The short version

Osteoporosis can make a bone in your spine so weak that it cracks and squashes down, which causes sudden back pain.
In vertebroplasty, the doctor puts a hollow needle through a tiny nick in your back and fills the broken bone with bone cement.
Kyphoplasty adds one step first: a small balloon makes a space inside the bone, and then the space is filled with cement.
The cement sets hard within about 20 minutes. Many people go home the same day and feel less pain within days, but it does not help everyone.

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Up nextYour spine is a stack of bones

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