What are Osteophytes, Bone Spurs, HO?

[Alastair]

Bone spurs, or osteophytes, are bony projections that form along joints, and are often seen in conditions such as arthritis. Bone spurs are largely responsible for limitations in joint motion and can cause pain.
The reason for bone spur formation is the body is trying to increase the surface area of the joint to better distribute weight across a joint surface that has been damaged by arthritis or other conditions. Unfortunately, this is largely wasted effort by our body as the bone spur can become restrictive and painful.

Bone spurs themselves are not problematic, but they are a signal of an underlying problem that often needs to be addressed. Bone spurs are often documented to help assess the severity of a condition such as arthritis

[Harrison]

In the past year, many questions about bone abnormalities have surfaced (pun intended). The above description from Sir Alastair is interesting & helpful, but only touches upon the complex factors around spurs, abnormal bone growth and autofusion. I aggregated some of the important articles on these issues.

These links cover bone spurs, heterotopic ossification, autofusion and more.

One topic here relating to heterotopic ossification here.

Another from Medscape on the classification of HO after ADR:
here. (This link is dead; they expired this wonderful article!)

A lengthy article on HO here, with a section on NSAIDS here.

A more technical overview (this is a PDF) on Wolf�s Law (Mechanical Loading in Cortical Bone) here.

A few comments on autofusion here.

[Alastair]

Well I think Harrison goes to the top of the class for how to use the "Search" facility

I never realised we had said so much about this subject over the years - - -- but we have

It just shows how much "Ground" we have covered

Best
Alastair