Can Bone Spurs Grow Bigger?|Treatment of Bone Spurs

Bone spurs may develop in any of the bones present in a human body. These are a few bony projections developing across the bones’ edges. Bone spurs take place whenever two bones or more than two bones connect with one another i.e. in the bone joints and bone spine.¹

Irrespective of the formation of bone spurs in spine or any other bone joints, the problem mainly takes place due to common reasons, which include-

• Generation of Discs: Cushioning and soft discs play major role in the separation of vertebral present in one’s spine. Whenever such discs wear down, vertebrae contact with one another and activate the formation of bone spurs.
• Osteoarthritis: In this condition, cartilage presents in between the bone /spine joints wears down. Since exposed bone joints cause rubbing against one another, it results in friction and excessive pressure.² Thus, with the attempt to stabilize bone joints, body a human creates bone spurs.
• Traumatic Injuries: Traumatic injuries may occur while playing high-impact sports, car/auto accidents and various other impacts, which may accelerate the deterioration of any specific bone joint and finally, result in the development of oesteophytes.
• Natural Aging: With the increase in age, both ligaments for holding bones to bones and tendons for holding muscles to bones present in one’s body starts tightening and pulling of the bones from their exact places. This may stimulate the formation of osteophytes.

Yes, bone spurs can grow bigger and protrude to the nearby tissues. This growing of bone spurs in to the nearby tissues can cause a lot of pain.

Most of the bone spurs’ patients ask a common ask whether growth of bone spurs again take place after they undergo surgery and if yes, exactly after how much time. In order to answer this question, experts said that the growth of bone spurs again depends on specific situations. If you consider the usual case, spurs do not return post removal as a significant part of a joint fusion or replacement but may occur again after the isolated removal or excision depending on future injuries, age factors or consistent traction or over usage of bones.

Another best thing is that most of the symptomatic bone spurs improve with proper non-surgical care. Arthritic bone spurs typically removed in the form of joint replacement or arthroplasty will never repeat/recur, as doctors remove as well as replace such joints with related plastic and metal parts. On the other side, bone spurs removed with the help of open surgeries or arthroscopic surgical methods may recur in case conditions contribute to spur development exist continuously, such as traction, trauma, overuse and age of humans.

Doctors may recommend for any one among the following non-surgical treatments or a combination of the two or more than two treatment options mentioned here for bone spurs.

• Over-the-counter and prescription pain medications
• Anti-inflammatory medicines
• Physical therapy
• Corticosteroid injections
• Physical exercise and stretching activities
• Chiropractic care, acupuncture and other similar alternative therapies.

In case conservative and non-surgical treatment methods for bone spurs fail to give you relief from the problem, doctors recommend for any one among the following surgical methods-

• Laminotomy, in which doctors create additional spaces in the bone/spine canals, whenever bone spur develops on any normal structure of a human bone and crowds the respective bone or spine canal.³
• Discectomy intends to remove a particular part of bulging or herniated disk material for the alleviation of nerve root or spinal cord compression.
• Foraminotomy helps to remove bone spurs and other nearby tissues causing compression of nerves within the foramen.
• Face thermal ablation to make a nerve dead that ends within an arthritic facet spinal/bone joint.

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Also Read:

• Bone Spurs or Osteophytes- Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment
• Neck Bone Spurs or Cervical Osteophytes: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment
• Shoulder Bone Spurs: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment
• What Causes Bone Spurs in the Neck?
• Are Bone Spurs Genetic?
• What is a Bone Spur in the Knee?
• Can Bone Spurs On The Spine Be Removed?