Bone graft site pain and morbidity after spinal fusion
June 20 , 2007
Graft site morbidity refers to any consequences that result from the harvesting of the patient’s own bone (an autograft) for spinal fusion, such as early post-operative pain, chronic pain, scarring, bleeding, infection, and more.

Bone grafting is typically a part of spinal fusion surgery for symptomatic degenerative disc disease. The fusion is accomplished when the graft material placed between the two bones of a motion segment induces bony incorporation on both sides, and heals them together as one bone. This eliminates motion but also hopefully reduces the pain from that segment of the spine. Read more...

By: David DeWitt, MD

Blog Post:

Back pain sufferers: avoid these 6 common mistakes.

Message boards:

"I get pain in my lower right side of my back, but mainly it starts in my buttock-hip area and shoots down to my knee causing pinching and throbbing feeling. It effects me when I run, walk and sometimes get in and out of the car."

Doctor's Advice on DDD:

"...[A]n MRI showed degenerative disc disease L3 thru S1, a diffuse bulge at L4/5 (worse to the left) and facet osteoarthropathy mildly impinging the L5 nerve roots ... Do you think it is possible to rehabilitate my back to the level of being able to lift in excess of 50 lbs? If I pick up my 25 lb child too much, my back pain gets worse." Read Dr. Ullrich's response and to other questions about degenerative disc disease.