Hip graft harvest site hurting more than your back?

Your spine fusion at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is healing fine. But the spot where your surgeon took bone from the back of your hip hurts more than the actual fusion site. That pain from the harvest site can last for months and make every step feel worse than it should.

When your spine fusion uses bone from your own hip, the surgeon makes a second cut over the iliac crest. That is the curved rim of bone at the back of your hip. This cut goes through muscle and skin, and the bone there is full of nerve endings. The hip also carries your weight every time you stand or roll over. So the harvest site can hurt more than the fusion incision on your back, even when the spine itself is healing well.

This donor site pain is not a small nuisance. It can last from six weeks to six months or longer. Some people are left with a permanent numb patch, a tight scar, or a deep ache when they walk. Managing it often means extra pain medicine, more physical therapy, and more time away from work. The size of the graft and how much you move after surgery can make the pain bigger or longer.

The way to avoid this pain is to stop harvesting bone from the hip. Ask your spine surgeon about ACTIFUSE, a synthetic bone graft substitute that does not need a second surgical site. No hip harvest means no donor site pain, no extra scar, and one less wound to clean and watch. Elite Surgical can bring the published evidence on this graft to your surgeon at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Call this week to start that conversation before your next fusion is scheduled.

Once the hip harvest site is off the table, recovery has one focus: your spine fusion. You stand, sit, and walk without a deep ache from your hip. There is only one incision to manage. The fusion can heal with the same high rates as bone from your own hip, and physical therapy is easier when every step does not hurt.