[Cynlite]

My understanding is that osteophytes "bone spurs" and degeneration are a normal part of an aging spine. However, bone spurs also tend to grow after a trauma to the spine. A trauma would include and accident or surgery. They become a problem when they push into the spinal cord. A lot of the literature that I have read says don't worry about them under normal conditions because they mostly don't cause pain and over half the people over 60 have osteophytes.

Yet, surgery is not a normal condition. (My C6/C7 quickly autofused after three so called minimally invasive neck surgeries and I don't have an answer for why this happened by the surgeons.) Dr. Clavel told me he took extra time removing my many osteophytes during the surgery and suggested the high dose of NSAIDs as a precaution for one month following the surgery and then to stop taking them.

When you look at research about ADRs post surgery, the researchers measure their growth over 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60 months. They are trying to determine if the different types of artificial discs make a difference. I think this is because osteophytes can lead to auto fusion and they are concerned about the bone growing over the disc end plate material. The manufacturers say it's important for the surgeon to choose the right size disc to try to completely cover the verterbra so we don't get bone growth over them. So, if you think about it, how the surgeon performs the surgery, disc size and placement all come into play so, these studies are perhaps not perfectly controlled. How can they be?

I wonder, the more a surgeon or pain doctor messes around the spine wouldn't that cause a higher risk of them forming because it causes a trauma to the area? I believe this is the argument for taking high doses of NSAID's following surgery but, what about other spinal procedures? I'm not a doctor so, I may not have all this correct. I don't think the doctors have all the answers either. They certainly don't educate patients on this matter which is frustrating. It's complicated because not every person treats their body the same so, there is no way to have a truly controlled testing environment to understand and find the answers IMO.

http://www.spine-health.com/conditio...-and-back-pain

There are many things we do to the body that changes the environment of the body for better or for worse and it's an ongoing process. We discuss some of these things in the Naturopathic Corner so, I won't get into specifics here. It is not easy living a perfect life for our body because of our personal choices and because of the environment we live in. We just have to do our best because we can't control everything. So, in the end, I can only discuss the subject but, I really don't have the answers to your questions...just more questions.