Patent ID: 7938835

Claim:
A system for treating a vertebral body comprising a cannula sized and configured to establish a percutaneous path leading into a vertebral body; a cavity creating device comprising a shaft having an outer surface and a distal end portion sized to extend through the cannula and into the vertebral body, an expandable body having a proximal region attached to the outer surface of the distal end portion of the shaft and having a distal region positioned distally beyond the distal end portion of the shaft, the expandable body sized and configured for contacting cancellous bone and for undergoing expansion between a collapsed condition and an expanded condition to form a cavity in cancellous bone of the vertebral body, and a tubular fluid transport member extending through the shaft and beyond the distal end portion of the shaft and extending through the expandable body, the tubular fluid transport member sized and configured to convey fluid through the distal region of the expandable body and into the cavity; a device coupled to the shaft to expand the expandable body from the collapsed condition to the expanded condition and to return the expandable body from the expanded condition to the collapsed condition; a source of fluid coupled to the tubular fluid transport member to convey fluid through the distal region of the expandable body and into the cavity to resist formation of a vacuum within the cavity as the expandable body is returned from the expanded condition to the collapsed condition; and a device to convey a filling material into the cavity.