Kyphoplasty

Surgery Overview

Kyphoplasty (say "KY-foh-plas-tee") is a procedure for your back. It is done to relieve pain from compression fractures of the spine. It can return your vertebrae to a more normal shape.

Your doctor may numb the area, or you may get medicine to make you sleep. The doctor makes a small cut in your back. Then the doctor puts a balloon device into a vertebra. The doctor inflates the balloon and then deflates it. Then a type of cement is put into the space created by the balloon.

It takes about an hour to treat each vertebra. You may go home that day, or you may spend the night in the hospital.

Most people are able to go back to their normal activities within a day.