A person's spine is made up of interlocking bones called vertebrae, each separated from the other by a small, tough disc of tissue. A small hole runs down through the center of each vertebra, and the spinal cord and nerves run through the tunnel created when all the vertebra line up.

Osteoporosis, or the presence of small holes in bone that reduce the amount of bone mass, can cause bones to break easily. Vertebral bones affected by osteoporosis may crack and become compressed. Compression fractures in the vertebra can cause pain when pieces of fractured vertebral bone matter press together. Compressed vertebra can also reduce a person's height and cause back curvature known as kyphosis.

To treat vertebral compression fractures that do not heal on their own, doctors use a relatively painless procedure known as percutaneous vertebroplasty (pronounced 'ver-TEE-bro-plas-ty'). Percutaneous means 'through the skin' and vertebroplasty means 'to reshape a vertebra.'

During vertebroplasty, doctors administer a local anesthetic and sedation and then insert a needle through the skin above a person's spine. Using fluoroscopy, a type of x-ray that projects images on monitor screens, to monitor the needle, the doctors steer the needle directly into a vertebral bone that has been affected by a compression fracture. They then inject a special kind of bone cement through the needle and into the bone itself. The cement fills all the holes and cracks in the bone and hardens. The cement does not expand the collapsed vertebra, but it stabilizes the fracture and, in the vast majority of people, alleviates pain.

The procedure may also be used to treat vertebra that have not yet fractured but are at increased risk of compression fracture. Vertebroplasty is a low risk procedure that rarely causes infection, worsening of pain, or neurological problems.