Vertebroplasty
Also called: bone cement spine procedure
What it means
Vertebroplasty is a procedure where a doctor injects bone cement into a fractured spinal vertebra to help stabilize it and relieve pain.
If you've had this procedure, the cement can make a spine bone density scan look artificially higher, so your doctor may rely on other sites to track your bone health.
Vertebroplasty is a minimally invasive procedure where a doctor injects bone cement into a fractured vertebra, usually to ease pain from a vertebral compression fracture. A needle is guided into the vertebral body using imaging, and the cement hardens to stabilize the bone from within. It's typically considered when pain is severe and hasn't improved with other measures.
A related procedure, kyphoplasty, first inflates a small balloon in the vertebra to create space and restore some height before cement is added. Both procedures aim to reduce pain and improve stability, but they don't reverse osteoporosis itself or rebuild healthy bone. Any decision about whether these procedures are right for you belongs to your doctor, based on your specific fracture and symptoms.
One practical detail worth knowing: cement from a past vertebroplasty shows up clearly on a DXA scan and can artificially raise the bone density reading at that spinal level, making the spine look stronger than it really is. This is why technologists and radiologists often exclude cemented or otherwise abnormal vertebrae from the spine BMD calculation and may lean more on the hip or femoral neck result instead.
Vertebroplasty injects bone cement into a fractured vertebra, which can later make spine density scans look artificially higher.
Where this leads
WordVertebroplasty uses cement to stabilize a fracture, but there's a related balloon-assisted option too. See how kyphoplasty compares.
Where the Academy teaches it
This page is the short version. The lessons teach it in full, with the context around it and a quiz to lock it in.
Related words
Kyphoplasty is a minimally invasive surgery that uses a balloon and bone cement to repair and stabilize a collapsed…
A vertebral compression fracture is when a bone in the spine collapses or flattens, often because the bone is…
A vertebra is one of the 24 small bones stacked together to form the spine, each made of a thick front body and bony…
The lumbar spine is the lower part of your backbone, made up of five vertebrae (L1-L5) between your ribs and pelvis.…
Bone cement is a fast-hardening acrylic material (usually PMMA) that surgeons use to fix artificial joints in place…
A DEXA scan is a low-radiation X-ray test that measures how much mineral is in your hip and spine bones, giving you…
Education only, not medical advice. Decisions about tests, medications and treatment belong with your own doctor. OsteoStrong does not diagnose, treat or cure any disease.
