An Introduction to Kyphoplasty

Part of the musculoskeletal and neuroradiology fellowship at a private practice in Los Angeles, California, Dr. Jeff Lovin earned his MD from the University of Washington School of Medicine. In his current role, Dr. Jeff Lovin performs a variety of procedures relating to interventional and diagnostic radiology, including kyphoplasty.

Kyphoplasty is a minimally-invasive procedure done to alleviate pain and other issues resulting from a break or fracture of a vertebra in the spine. Often, it is performed alongside vertebroplasty, another minimally-invasive procedure that involves injecting a mixture into the broken vertebra to strengthen it. Kyphoplasty is done before vertebroplasty and is responsible for creating the space health care providers need to inject the cement mixture properly.

To perform kyphoplasty, doctors clean the area of the back where the damaged vertebra is and apply either local anesthesia to the site or administer general anesthesia. Once the area is numbed, a needle is placed into the spine bone and doctors use an x-ray to find the correct area of the back that needs cement.

After the affected area of the spine is found, a balloon is inserted into the bone via the needle. It’s then inflated to return the damaged vertebra to its normal height. This enables doctors to carefully inject the cement mixture into the spine without the vertebrae collapsing again and causing additional pain. This mixture dries very quickly and patients are usually capable of returning home the same day as their procedure.