undo a portion of a spinal fusion

  • Thread starter Thread starter pewoolar
  • Start date Start date
P

pewoolar

Guest
Due to an auto accident I damage at L2/L3 with a fracture and subdural tear. I was fused L1-L5. I am athletic and was in great physical condition. It has been 1 1/2 yrs and I am wondering why the need to fuse all of them if it was just L2/L3 that were damaged and when I schedule to have the metal bars n screws removed why they can't remove a portion of the fusion - since there was no damage at s1, l1 or at l3,l4, or L5. If nothing is damaged at L3/L4/L5 why can't they remove the fusion and give me back more of my range of motion agility and allow the healthy parts of my body do their jobs- absorb impact instead of placing it all on the S1- which I'm told is not a good thing!!!
 
I'm sure that others with more knowledge will chime in, but now that you are fused, to remove it would be cutting pieces of bone out. What would they put in there instead? You have had the disc removed so there is nothing to hold anything in place. You wouuld have bone grinding on bone.

Why you were fused so far-who knows. Perhaps there was addition damage, or they were so weak that your surgeon felt it was needed. They don't know for sure how bad anything is until they get in and can look at it. YOu may have warrented the extra levels being fused.
 
Fusion means they create a permanent "segment" at L1-L5 via hardware, bone fragments, at and surrounding all levels. That means that even if you have the hardware removed, the majority of fusions are done in a way that the vertebrae L1-L5 are now one solid bone. If you have symptoms in the L5-S1 area that can be added to the fusion through further surgery.

I recently had L3 added to my L4-S1 fusion. The surgeon said that L4-S1 was solid meaning he could have left hardware out and it would be a solid segment.
 
There is only way to "undo" a fusion and that means breaking it....as in breaking your back. You'd be in more pain that you've ever been in before so I'd leave well enough alone and be happy you're doing so well with a fused lower back.

Jenny(fused C3 to T1 neck and may be expanding)
 
Back
Top