 Hi, I am Dr. Vidyadhara S, Head of the Department and Consultant Spine Surgeon at Manipal Spine Care Center. Osteoporosis is a condition wherein there is a bone forming cell called osteoblast and bone resorbing cell called osteoclast. Either the osteoblast can be less and the bone can become weak or osteoclast can be hyperactive and cause weakness of the bone. And a weak bone is susceptible to injury. Osteoporotic wedge compression fractures of the spinal column have become a bigger than expected epidemic by virtue of people living longer. We have an aging population which is much more larger compared to that of 20 years back and almost every outpatient clinic of every spine surgeon caters to more people presenting with back pain beyond 60 years of age. And the patients who are at risk for osteoporosis are people on steroids, people who are aged, people with arthritis, people with medical comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol, etc., etc. The osteoporosis is caused by nutritional deficiency as well wherein there is a deficiency of vitamin D and calcium and this can be because people don't drink milk or dairy products and also people don't go out in the sunlight. This deficiency that causes bones to become more brittle and susceptible to injury with lesser and lesser trauma. The osteoporotic wedge compression fractures are suspected when a patient who is susceptible to the fracture complains of severe back pain, more on change of posture such as getting up from sitting, getting up from lying down or turning position on bed and this can be confirmed by X-rays which are less sensitive and MRI is the diagnostic gold standard which picks up these fractures at the earliest. If left undiagnosed or untreated, these fractures can collapse with consequent development of kibbus or kyphosis or a hunchback. Traditionally these fractures were being treated by absolute bed rest for six weeks followed by a brazed mobilization for another six weeks. In total for three months patient needs to be away from work, away from office and this is unacceptable to most of us at whatever age. Now present day there is an advance in the form of minimal invasive surgical procedures which can be done through needles inserted into the vertebrae, the broken vertebrae under local anesthesia or under general anesthesia depending on the risk factors involved and if we inject bone cement through these needles into the fractured bones internally stabilizing the fracture it is called as vertebroplasty and in addition to vertebroplasty prior to the insertion of cement you can inflate the balloons inside these vertebral bodies which are fractured and wedged to reshape the body into the normal shape or near normal shape so that in addition to pain relief you will also get patient who is having near normal anatomy of vertebral column and this is called as balloon kyphoplasty so we have two procedures catering to the needs of osteoporotic wedge compression fractures namely vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty these are daycare procedures but however in case the patient needs to claim insurance he may have to stay in the hospital for a day otherwise patient walks in and walks out on the same day patient can expect a near 100% or rather 90% pain relief for sure at the end of the procedure and the total healing of the fracture to 100% may take up to 3 months the patient does not require to use any sort of bracing after this procedure and it has completely kept the patient out from the concept of bed rest so this is a boon to patients with osteoporotic wedge compression fractures and with multiple medical comorbidities and an advanced age we treat these osteoporotic fractures with these minimally invasive procedures on a priority for people who want to get treated with these advances in science and technology in the same course of treatment through the same needles we also send the tissue for biopsy from the inside of the fractured bone to rule out any pathologies such as cancers which may be indolent which may be the cause of bone fracturing and this may lead to early diagnosis of cancers so that they can be treated much earlier than if they don't undergo these minimally invasive procedures we at Manipal Spine Care Center have the expertise and infrastructure with state-of-the-art technology to cater to the needs of elderly population suffering quite frequently osteoporotic wedge compression fractures in the form of percutaneous minimally invasive surgical procedures to internally stabilize the spine such as vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty safely and successfully delivering a near normal life back to the patients who are in agony.