All You Need To Know About Kyphoplasty
Kyphoplasty and Vertebroplasty are minimally invasive strategies used to treat vertebral compression fractures of the spine. These fractures occur when the vertebral body or the bony block present in the spine collapses due to excessive pressure or other causes. This leads to severe pain, deformity, etc.
These fractures are most likely to occur in the lower part of the thoracic spine and less common in other parts of the spine. Untreated conditions may convert into a bumped spine known as kyphosis. Kyphoplasty is aimed to re-establish the vertebra position with an inflatable balloon and infusing bone-bonding material into the broken bone.
Difference between Vertebroplasty and Kyphoplasty
Both Vertebroplasty and Kyphoplasty are performed with an empty needle that is pierced through the skin into the broken vertebra. The difference is that in Vertebroplasty, the bone bond is infused through the empty needle into the broken bone whereas, in Kyphoplasty, an inflatable balloon is first embedded and swelled to extend the vertebra to its ordinary size before filling the space with a bone bond. The corrected vertebra enables the patient to stand straight, decreases the pain, and avoids any tentative additional cracks.