Dr. Justin Sporrer, Neurosurgeon at Baptist Health Neuroscience Center, says kyphoplasty has replaced vertebroplasty. “Vertebroplasty is inserting the needle into the bone and just injecting cement; this cement will go where it can but oftentimes the compression fracture is so severe and there’s no good room for the cement to go,” he explains.

“The advantage of kyphoplasty is that you can actually get the cement in there because you’ve created a space for it and you can help to restore height to the bone”, he points out.