A vertebral compression fracture is a bone in the spine losing height — the front of the vertebra collapses, often in someone whose bone is already thinned by osteoporosis, sometimes after a fall or a crash, sometimes because cancer has weakened the bone. It can happen with no more force than a sneeze or lifting a bag of groceries.
The pain is typically sudden, in the middle or lower back, sharply worse when standing up or rolling over and easier lying flat. Left alone, the vertebra heals in its collapsed shape. Several of them, and the spine curves forward — the stooped posture that costs height, makes breathing harder and makes the next fracture more likely.
Kyphoplasty is percutaneous vertebral augmentation: the work is done through a needle-sized opening rather than an incision, with live X-ray guidance throughout.
A narrow tube is passed into the fractured vertebral body. A balloon goes through the tube and is inflated inside the bone, which creates a cavity and, when the timing is right, lifts some of the lost height back. The balloon comes out and the cavity is filled with bone cement, which hardens in minutes and stabilises the fracture. The pain relief people describe comes from that stabilisation — the broken bone stops moving.
It is not a treatment for osteoporosis itself. Whatever weakened the bone still needs managing afterwards, or the next vertebra is a candidate.
Kyphoplasty is not offered on the strength of back pain and an X-ray showing an old collapse. Medicare sets out what has to be true, and those criteria are a fair description of who actually benefits:
It is also covered for fractures caused by osteolytic metastasis or myeloma, and for traumatic fractures including burst and wedge fractures from a fall or a crash.
It is ruled out where there is active infection or osteomyelitis, or where the pain is clearly not coming from the fracture on the scan. Spinal instability, myelopathy, nerve impingement, canal compromise and more than three fractures at once all count against it. Deciding which of those applies to you is what the consultation and the imaging are for.
The consultation, the imaging review and the follow-up happen at your Mountain View Pain Center clinic. The procedure itself is coordinated through Mountain View Surgery Center, our ambulatory surgery centre at 5060 S Syracuse St in Denver, where procedures are done in an outpatient setting with same-day discharge.
You will not be arranging that yourself. Scheduling, the imaging and the surgery centre are handled by the same team that sees you in clinic, and questions about a booked procedure go to the surgery centre directly on (303) 606-7115.
Most people go home the same day and are asked to take it quietly for the first 24 hours, with no lifting or bending. Relief often arrives within a day or two, though it is not universal and it is not instant for everyone.
The risks are small but they are real, and they are worth hearing before you consent rather than after. Cement can leak out of the vertebral body; usually that causes nothing, occasionally it presses on a nerve. There is a small risk of infection or bleeding, as with any procedure. And stabilising one vertebra does not stop the next one fracturing — which is exactly why the osteoporosis treatment, the vitamin D and the balance work matter as much as the cement does.
Call us, or seek urgent care, if you get a fever, spreading redness at the site, new weakness or numbness in the legs, or any change in bladder or bowel control.
Every clinic below has chiropractic, physical therapy, acupuncture and pain management on one chart, so care can move between them without a new referral.
Downtown out through the north, west, south and east suburbs.
Academy, Interquest and Tenderfoot cover the north, central and south of the city.
Harmony in Fort Collins and our Greeley clinic serve Larimer and Weld counties.
Across the Valley, from the West Valley through Phoenix to the East Valley.
Both inject bone cement into a fractured vertebra. Kyphoplasty adds a balloon first, which creates a cavity and can restore some of the height the bone lost before the cement goes in. Vertebroplasty injects cement without that step.
The procedure itself is usually under an hour for a single level. Most of the day is checking in, preparation and recovery before discharge. It is an outpatient procedure with same-day discharge.
It is covered when the criteria are met — an acute or subacute fracture, recent imaging within 30 days showing the fracture is still active, and pain that has not responded to proper non-surgical care. We check all of that before scheduling, and we verify your specific plan first.
Timing matters more here than with most procedures. The window Medicare recognises is the first twelve weeks, and the imaging has to show the fracture is still active. If your back pain started suddenly and has not settled, it is worth being seen sooner rather than waiting it out.
Not to be seen for the consultation. A few insurance plans require one for certain services, which we check when we verify your benefits.
That depends on the case and is confirmed when the procedure is scheduled. Whatever is planned for you, it changes whether you can drive yourself home, so we tell you in advance and ask you to arrange a driver if one is needed.
Not necessarily, but a first osteoporotic fracture makes another more likely, and treating the fracture does not treat the osteoporosis. Bone health management afterwards is part of the plan, not an afterthought.
Kyphoplasty is offered by our Pain Management physicians in Colorado and Arizona — see the full clinic map, Colorado or Arizona.
