Bone over growth or bone spurs

[gsw]

Anyone here have bone over growth or bone spurs that required an operation? I am currently taking PT and the Therapist thinks that I may have a bone spur pinching my nerves to my feet. I would like to hear from anyone who has had surgery to treat bone spurs and what the outcome of the surgery was?

Thanks

[slipnslide]

GSW,

I had oseophytes, but they were not the sole reason for me having had surgery. My guess would be, whether it's spurring or protruding disks affecting the nerves or spinal cord, the results are the same and surgery is warranted depending on the severity of the symptoms/neurological deficit. Hopefully someone who has had surgery strictly for spurring will come along and offer up some info.

Best wishes,

Kim

[Kathi49]

GSW,

I have to agree with Kim here. I haven't run across anyone yet that has had surgery just for the bone spurs alone. If they have, I hope they post.

[kudzu]

My physiatrist suggested possible surgery to remove some of the osteophytes. He feels they are causing traction & contributing to my symptoms. However, I've not scheduled the surgical consult yet & it would be more for my other problems than osteophytes.

Frankly, I cannot imagine letting someone take a Dremel to my vertebrae.

[Jyes]

I had a shoulder problem for years after a nasty fall back in 1995. At that time the NS recommended PT, since I only had a small Rotator cuff tear, well, that still took almost a year to where I got 100% mobility back.

But as the years went on, I gradually developed shoulder pain that eventually was so severe it caused quite a few sleepless nights. So a few years ago I went back to the NS and after X-Rays and a MRI, he saw the tear was there but saw a bone spur and recommended surgery.

The surgery was a super success, he said the bone spur was one of the biggest he had seen in awhile, the NS ground the spur away, and shaved off the torn portion of the rotator cuff tear and after several weeks of PT and another month of just plain old healing time, my shoulder was almost like brand new.

So, I did get relief from the pain, by having the bone spur surgically ground away. Of course mine was a shoulder and not the spine, but hopefully this helps you in your decision on what options lie before you.

I wanted to add, my new NS basically said that he would not operate on the bone spurs on my spine, but for matter of fact, he said I was not a candidate for almost any spinal operation since he thought success of reducing pain was below 50%.

Jyes