Bone Grafting for Spinal Fusion Baltimore MD

So many seemingly miraculous things are possible through the contemporary system of medical services.  A hundred years ago, fusing together two or more vertebrae in the spine to make a singular piece of bone as an intervention for chronic back pain would have been unthinkable.  The spinal fusion Baltimore MD surgery is now quite common and safe for many back pain patients who have not found another workable treatment.  While there are several variations on this surgery that depend on the location of the back pain and the preference of the patient and the surgeon, among other factors, one commonality of all spinal fusion Baltimore surgeries, as the name suggests, is fusion.

How is Spinal Fusion Achieved?

One of the major elements of this type of surgery is using a bone graft to fuse together the vertebrae as necessary.  It goes without saying that many potential patients of this procedure might have questions about bone grafting.  This short article is intended to explain, briefly how much a spinal fusion surgery Baltimore can be done.

At the present time, there are two basic ways to obtain a bone graft for use in fusing the spine.

• An autograft means that the bone material used for the graft comes from the patient's own body.  Most often, the surgeon will make an incision in the thigh and take the bone material from the femur, which is the long bone located at the top of the leg.  This is the best way to obtain bone material that will be readily accepted as a graft in the spinal area.  Unfortunately, it does mean the patient will have another surgical site and another set of wound care issues during recovery.
• In some cases, the bone graft comes from a deceased individual who has donated their body for medical use.  Understandably, not all patients are anxious to have tissue from a cadaver implanted into their body for a variety of reasons.  The allograft (as this procedure is called) does carry some risks.  These include the possibility of the patient's body rejecting the implanted bone material and also a possibility of transferring some communicable diseases from the cadaver to the patient.

To learn even more, visit https://www.medstarunionortho.org!