External Bone Growth Stimulators

K

Kate P.

New member
I am looking for information re external bone growth stimulators. My adult daughter had a spinal fusion 5/07 with BMP and it's hardly fused. Surgeon seems unconcerned which is another matter. She will be seeing him 5/21 and will be looking for answers as well as possibly a prescription or whatever it would be to try an electrical external bone growth stimulator.
Any info will be appreciated - re the stimulator and success of and BMP success rates/failures. I'm betting the surgeon didn't put in enough BMP as she is disabled and only has Medicare. Not a nice thing to suspect, but at this point, what else could it be? Our information from sources including a friend of ours who sells for Medtronic swore BMP would fuse when nothing else would - "even for smokers," which my daughter had quit a month before the surgery. It's probably obvious that my daughter and I are quite frustrated. Help! Please! Thank you for any info.
 
Hi Kate, and welcome to the board,
I had an external bone growth stimulator after my fusion. I was at a higher risk of not fusing, partly because of the nuraber of levels I was having done, 8, so my doctor wanted to throw everything at me that he could. He used BMP and the bone growth stimulator, and I was showing bone growth at only 6 weeks post op. That's unusual. It usually doesn't even start showing on x-ray until 3 months, and often later than that.

Mine was the kind that is worn 24/7 except in the shower, a small unit about the size of a beeper that can be clipped to a belt, slipped onto a brace strap, or dropped into a pocket. It has leaRAB that go to sticky paRAB which are placed on either side of the incision. Mine was the Spinal Pak II by EBI.

There's another type that has two pieces kind of like picture frames that get strapped on daily, one on the front and one on the back. It is worn for a couple of hours a day, then taken off.

I don't know what Medicare covers, but it shouldn't effect the doctor, as it comes from a company, not from him. He just writes the prescription for it. But I don't know a lot about Medicare, so maybe I'm wrong about if effecting him. It's certainly worth looking into. When I got mine, my insurance company informed me that they weren't going to pay anything on it, as I had already used up my durable medical gooRAB allowance on the brace and other things. I called EBI and talked to them and they very kindly cut my bill in half because the insurance wasn't covering and we were on one income. They asked for a lot of information about our finances and called me back the next day. It was still a lot of money, but worth every penny to get a good fusion.

I wish your daughter the best as she works through all this. Tell her about this site. She'd get lots of support and encouragement here!

Take care,
Emily
 
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