Failed Fusion

[Bionicwan]

I am concerned that eventually my hardware could also fail -
as it was not designed to support my spine forever-
on it's own?

my fusion was in '03 - and psuedoarthrosis was confirmed in '04

are any of you living with a failed fusion and/or suffered hardware failure?

I am an old meraber who has come back
(with a slightly different screen name)

as I said, I have a failed fusion (2 levels) DDD & Fibro
and really missed this board!

Bionic

 

[tmvincent30]

Hi and welcome back i had a fusion in 2002 and i found out in 2006 the fusion never took causing the screws to break. Like you said they told me there was no fusion holding them there so all that movement is what was hurting me. I had anterior/posterior fusion with new hardware in March of this year. So we are waiting to see if this fusion heals if not ill live like that until i cant take it anymore then maybe ( big maybe) ill consider surgery again.

Good luck to you!

 

[chatterboxsd]

Hi, Bionic.

Yep - That's what happened to me exactly. I went for the revision 1/08 and ended up leaving the original hardware in (XLIF) and adding some more (from the posterior) - I'm a thoracic.

Then, almost 6 months to the day, we took out the revision hardware because it was very much an irritant and caused constant spasms. That was this July 25. I'm still recovering from that.

So, I did fuse enough to take out the hardware, but I'm still eating well, not taking anti-inflamitories, and all the other pro-fusion behaviors because I know that my bones could (hopefully? ) strengthen some more.

I have no regrets about doing it. I was always in pain before AND worried that something terrible might happen with the flimsy hardware that wasn't designed to hold me up!

So, you're getting a very biased point of view, but that was just my experience. I did go see 3 different doctors before I had the revision. I wanted to be sure success would be likely for me before I put myself through a surgery like that again. I didn't think I'd have to have the hardware removed, but I had to take it as a bump in the road.

I wish you the very, very best. I do encourage you to educate and advocate for yourself. It will give you peace that you're doing what's right for YOU!
- Margaret