Hip graft site still hurting after spinal fusion?

Your back is healing well after spinal fusion. But the spot where your surgeon took bone from your hip is not. In Allegheny Health Network, many patients say the hip graft site hurts more than the fusion itself. It interrupts sleep, makes sitting uncomfortable, and slows recovery.

When bone is taken from the hip for spinal fusion, it creates a second wound. The hip bone has many nerve endings. That wound can hurt more than the back incision. Some people feel pain for months. Others get a numb spot around the scar. This is donor site pain, and it is common.

The standard path to avoid harvest pain is a synthetic bone graft. These grafts fill the fusion site without a second incision. Studies show fusion rates equal to using the patient's own bone. For people in Allegheny Health Network, choosing a synthetic graft means one less source of post-op pain to manage. It does not add complexity to the surgery.

If you are still in pain after a harvest or need another fusion, ask your surgeon about a silicate-substituted calcium phosphate graft like ACTIFUSE. Elite Surgical Technologies supplies this product to spine surgeons in the Allegheny Health Network area. Call your surgeon's office and say, "I want to talk about avoiding the hip harvest pain next time."

Without the hip harvest, there is no second wound, no extra scar, and no donor site pain. Recovery focuses only on your back. You can sleep without hip discomfort and get back to daily life sooner.