Kyphoplasty

The vertebroplasty procedure. Frankly, vertebroplasty is more accurate. Kyphosis means the bending of the spine to curve outward from the body. Kyphosis can result when a vertebra (or several vertebrae) suffers a compression fracture from osteoporosis (This is the classic humped posture of an elderly senior with severe osteoporosis). Plasty means to repair. Vertebroplasty is the procedure that can re-establish the height of a compressed vertebra. Sometimes (not always) this can correct some of the kyphosis. Perhaps more as a marketing angle, vertebroplasty has therefore also been referred to as kyphoplasty.See also vertebroplasty.

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ky·pho·plas·ty 'kī-fō-.plas-tē n, pl -ties a medical procedure that is similar to vertebroplasty in the use of acrylic cement to stabilize and reduce pain associated with a vertebral compression fracture but that additionally restores vertebral height and lessens spinal deformity by injecting the cement into a cavity created in the fractured bone by the insertion and inflation of a special balloon

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ky·pho·plas·ty (kiґfo-plas″te) a procedure for adding height to a compressed vertebra in osteoporosis: a balloon is inserted into the fracture through a trocar and expanded, and the resulting space is filled by injection of polymethacrylate cement. kyphoplastic adj