I’ve had all my hardware removed after T2-T10 fusion. Ask me anything.

@lylaaa Welcome to Connect! I want to thank you for posting your discussion about spine hardware removal with adding more revision hardware. That is good information to know. I'm a spine surgery patient and I didn't know that surgeons would be willing to remove the constructs of spine hardware. Sometimes, they probably cannot if there is a cage embedded inside fused bone, but it makes sense that the rods and screws could be removed.

My spine fusion was C5/C6 and I asked for that without hardware, and my surgeon at Mayo did that for me. I stayed in a neck brace until it fused and then rehabbed some weakened neck muscles. When I broke my ankle a few years ago, I had titanium plates put on my bones to put it back together. I had that removed after a year and a half. It was causing pain and chronic hives. Since removal, I do not have ankle pain except for when I stress the ligaments too much when it fatigues because the the break also caused a bad sprain and dislocation along with it. I also find that stretching out the surgical scar tissue helps a lot because it gets tight and pulls. I have been going to a physical therapist who taught me about myofascial release, so I've done some of this and that helps a lot too.

Here is our discussion about Myofascial Release (MFR):

Neuropathy - "Myofascial Release Therapy (MFR) for treating compression and pain"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/
I'm so glad you found this option and that it helped reduce your pain.

Jennifer

Amazing story. Especially your determination and persistence. Thanks for telling us. I'm wondering abou the stability of your spine. Have parts of the bone grown together? I suspect you know the details. The picture of the hardware you "got to keep" is the story's crown.
Inspiring.

Your story is inspiring! I had a tri level ACDF C4-C7 7 years ago and my orthopedic surgeon told me I would not be able to have anything removed. I'm wondering if you also had disc replacement as I did. I am much better after the surgery though it took me 5 months of physical therapy and much pain to get where I am. I still have headaches and some pain especially if I turn my head wrong in my sleep. I have tried many orthopedic pillows, but I find a soft pillow is the best for me. I also was informed 2 years after surgery that I have osteoporosis in my spine and hips and osteopenia in my neck now. Kind of scary with a bar and 4 screws holding my neck together. I'm only 60 but my mother passed at 78 from osteoporosis complications. I guess we each have to deal with the hand we are given. I'm so happy for you though!

Thank you for sharing this amazing story. I never thought in terms of removal of hardware once installed and this has broadened my perspective substantially. I have spinal stenosis but nothing like what you have experienced.

Yes, I am also curious about the stability of your spine without hardware - can you advise?

Not exactly on point but wife had laminectomy, discetomy and removal of 3 coflex spinal implants L3 to L5 for spinal stenosis
Now spine has shifted -Did removal of hardware cause misalignment of spine? Also can you do a laminectomy
without removing spacers first? Now in very greater pain than before. Any comments about removing spinal spacers and its aftereffects would be appreciated,

This is so helpful. I was in car accident on July 3, 2020 and broke my back from T12-L2. I currently have 2 rods and 10 screws. One of my top screws is currently loose and my doctor recommended to remove all my hardware. I was a little frightened when she told me that. I didn’t even know it could be done. So thank you for answering some of my questions. God Bless you🙏🏼

anoyymyous 123
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8965756/
You might send your wife's records to UCLA for a careful opinion.
I'm so glad you are there for her.

@lylaaa - Good morning. I, like Jennifer, cannot imagine...and have not been interested in... hardware removal. Why do you want the hardware removed? Is it to regain range of motion? I can't think of another motivation...

As Jennifer suggests, with perforated caged new disks in place, where the bone has grown into the perforations, there is no good way to remove those. So are you considering plate/rod removal only?

I'd love to learn from you. Why would you consider removing the hardware? Has anyone reading this had some/all of their hardware removed? Why? How did things improve after removal?

Thanks!

@upstatephil Here's what I know about removing surgical hardware. I had plates and screws removed from my ankle that were placed there in fixing a bad ankle fracture. Spinal hardware is a different animal of course. Some people (like me) react to foreign materials in their body. My orthopedic surgeon told me that about 20% of fracture patients ask for removal of the hardware because of pain. Of course healing an ankle fracture is a very painful ordeal, and for me that was much more painful than healing my cervical spine surgery, and in saying that, my spine surgery was a single level simple anterior ACDF surgery (without hardware).

It was hard to know how much pain I had from the ankle fracture injury and healing and how much was caused by my body not liking the hardware. I was getting throbbing aches and pains all the time, kind of like a kick in the shins when the hardware was in place, and it was causing some discoloration of the skin in that area. 6 months after receiving the hardware, I was getting large patches of hives that could come up anywhere, and I had to stay on antihistamines all the time or it was unbearable. My surgeon didn't think it was related, but I did, and removing the hardware resolved all of that and the throbbing pain. I do still get some aches in my ankle, and deal with tightness from scar tissue that affects ligaments and tendons because of added uneven pressure on the joint from a bit of "positional misalignment." It can cause a sudden pain when I take a step if things are not moving properly.

Having metals inside my body also worsened my asthma issues causing a lot more lung congestion and breathing issues that could easily become a chest infection. I have a lot of allergies that make my asthma worse. I know this affected me because when I broke my ankle, I had no metals in my body, and my asthma got worse after ankle fixation, and when the foreign materials were removed, my lung function improved dramatically. Doctors need a lot of degrees of proof in order to draw conclusions about relationships that are health related, so I'm not surprised that they question if there is a problem at all.

Judging after everything was healed, I can say the titanium plates and screws probably caused 60% of the pain. I've only recently figured out that the uneven tension on the joint was responsible for some dysfunction and I've been able to relieve this with physical therapy type work and myofascial release stretching of the scar tissue and lower leg muscles to loosen everything. For the first time since the injury, I have been able to walk completely pain free. My ankle was always fatiguing fairly quickly because of the added pressure of muscle imbalances and tight tissue. I still need to work on improving strength and endurance in the leg, and continue to loosen up tightness that reoccurs. Surgery creates scar tissue that gets tight, and that restriction contributes to pain. The scar tissue can be loosened, and thus improve pain. It helps to maintain this with stretching when ever it begins to tighten up again.

Jennifer