This is the condition, according to David Schummer, that happens in the spinal columns of tens of thousands of people every year and leads to vertebral fractures that have previously required painful surgery. Schummer is the director of investor relations for Kyphon, a Sunnyvale company that is continually developing medical techniques to simplify the treatment of this very specific problem.

Four years after putting its products on the market, the company's success has enabled it to expand to a three-building complex north of Highway 237, which the company dedicated on April 14. And a recent approval by the Food and Drug Administration has Kyphon well on its way to further advancements in its field.

Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer Karen Talmadge co-founded Kyphon in 1996 after earning her doctorate in biochemistry from Harvard University. She knew that physicians had made progress on a procedure, one that was less invasive than those previously used, called balloon kyphoplasty, during which a small balloon is inserted into a fractured vertebra through a needle. The balloon inflates, exerting outward pressure to prop up the soft material inside the fractured vertebra as the operating surgeon watches on a television monitor.

But the physicians were having trouble finding companies to manufacture the needed equipment, so Talmadge stepped in to help facilitate a procedure that helps fix thousands of fractures caused by tumors, traumatic events or osteoporosis. "The population was in need, and the need was intense," she says. "It took 2 1Ž2 years to get the company funded, but I continued to believe in the technology despite all the 'noes'."

The first Kyphon campus was located in Menlo Park, with just Talmadge and two engineers. The company now employs more than 500, with half the force at the Sunnyvale headquarters and the rest circulating throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia, working to educate surgeons about the cutting-edge procedure. The emphasis on education at Kyphon is so strong that its employees receive money to pay for their children's college costs.

"The trend in most surgeries has been to go from open to noncontact, such as fluoroscopy, but the strategies for bones have been the same for the last 30 to 40 years," Schummer says. There are few competitors for the technology, so he says that Kyphon hopes to be a leader in that trend for spinal surgery.

So far, the educational efforts have paid off: Kyphon's sales have increased from $6 million at its market launch in 2000 to $131 million in 2003—far beyond Talmadge's initial estimates. Kyphon debuted at 124 on the Silicon Valley 150 list last year. Additionally, 60,000 patients have had fractures repaired by the surgery, many of whom have told Kyphon about their experiences.

"One doctor went to help a patient sit up, and she grimaced at the idea. But when she sat up, she said, 'It doesn't hurt!'" Talmadge says. "Patients have had to have trousers lengthened, and they've driven for the first time in years." Adds Schummer: "They call me up and want to invest."

This success spurred Kyphon to move to its new facility at 1221 Crossman Ave. Its old building was located on Bordeaux Drive, where employees were literally falling all over each other. The company now has 100,000 square feet spread across three buildings, which it procured at a low rent thanks to the decline in the area. The city of Sunnyvale has also approved the potential construction of a fourth building if that is necessary.

Further expansion may be in the works as Kyphon researches how to treat other kinds of fractures, including a focus on spinal fractures caused by traumatic events. Just within the past few weeks Kyphon has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its brand of bone cement, which is inserted into the expanded vertebra to keep it intact and the patient pain-free.

But while success has brought bigger offices and inflated profits, Kyphon still says it has a long way to go. "There are 700,000 patients a year who suffer from these fractures," Schummer says, "but only 300,000 are diagnosed. We're just at the beginning."

"And that's the exciting part," Talmadge says.