Bone spurs are medically known as osteophytes and osteophytes.
They are mainly found in joints that carry a lot of weight, such as the hip, knee and the edge of the spinal joint. Bone spurs in middle-aged and elderly people are a common phenomenon, just like old age, sickness and death, which are inevitable in the process of life activities. From a certain point of view, it is a law of life, not a pathological phenomenon.
Because people are constantly engaged in various activities throughout their lives, bone spurs in the joints are bound to grow later in life as a result of these activities. According to statistics, most people over the age of 50 have bone spurs in at least one joint, and almost all people over the age of 70 have bone spurs. Interestingly, not all people with bone spurs have clinical symptoms, and the severity of clinical symptoms is not always proportional to the size and number of spurs.
Therefore, there is no need to make a fuss and panic once a bone spur growth is detected. If you understand how it develops, you may not have too many worries. Figuratively speaking, “bone spurs” are just like our wrinkles, and as we age, the cartilage in our joints degenerates and “bone spurs” are created. “So older people do not have to talk about bone spurs.
How are bone spurs formed?
Normal human joints are like precision instruments, and the geometry of the joint surface varies from part to part, determining the direction and range of joint movement. The surface of the joint is covered with a layer of cartilage, which is smoother than a mirror and reduces the coefficient of friction of the joint. The joint “gaps” seen on the X-ray are in fact mostly articular cartilage, but the X-ray does not show it. In severe cases, the joint gap will be narrowed and even disappear on X-ray, and the range of motion of the joint will be reduced. When the cartilage in the joint degenerates, the nerve endings under the cartilage are exposed and painful symptoms occur when the joint is loaded or moved.
After middle age, the joints begin to age, as evidenced by laxity of the muscles and ligaments around the joints and degeneration of the articular cartilage, resulting in a decrease in joint stability and precision of joint motion. In order to regain the stability of the joint, bleeding, ossification, and hyperplasia occur under the periosteum around the joint, which is known as a long bone spur. It can be said that the appearance of bone spurs is a sign of joint degeneration and the body’s self-repair of joint instability until the joint is stable again.
The bone spur seen on an x-ray is sharp and narrow, while in plan view it is a platform that increases the contact area of the joint and serves to stabilize it. Imagine if the joint had only degenerated but not proliferated. I am afraid that many middle-aged and elderly people’s joints would have worn out and become unusable. In clinical practice, we often see significant bone spur growth above and below the lumbar intervertebral space, almost forming a bone bridge. Such intervertebral joints are then stable and the patient’s previous back pain disappears. In this sense, the presence of bone spurs has some benefit. However, while bone spurs increase the stability of the joint, they also bring some negative effects, such as they can cause popping, stimulate the surrounding soft tissues to produce pain, and bone spurs located in nerve-routing areas can produce symptoms of nerve compression.
If the lumbar intervertebral joint is enlarged and hypertrophied, the nerve root canal is narrowed and the nerve root is compressed, resulting in lower back pain, numbness, and limited movement. Whether or not symptoms appear when a bone spur is grown depends mainly on whether or not there is inflammation. Only when there is inflammation will pain occur. If the bone spur is large but does not touch sensitive tissues, nerves or blood vessels, it will not produce pain. So a large bone spur may not be symptomatic, while a small bone spur may be painful.
Do bone spurs always need to be treated? What is the treatment method? Bone spurs are mainly formed by long-term bleeding and ossification under the periosteum around the joint, and are mainly unstable around the joint. Therefore, once clinical symptoms are present, it is important to clarify whether the clinical symptoms are caused by bone spurs, and not to assume that the back pain is caused by long bone spurs as soon as they are mentioned. Perhaps the bone spur is long and the patient’s lumbar spine is stable and does not cause symptoms, but rather other pathological conditions, in which case it would be a bit of an injustice to say that the bone spur is bad.
In addition, bone spurs are bony growths and bones. If oral or topical medications can eliminate bone spurs, then your entire body will also be bereft of bones, so there is no scientific reason to eliminate bone spurs clinically through oral or topical medications. Some medications may prevent further growth of the bone spur, but they are unlikely to make it smaller or disappear. If the stability of the joint is increased, the growth of the bone spur will stop. There is no magic pill that can shrink or remove bone spurs, but inflammation can be reduced.
Once the inflammation is eliminated, the exudation and swelling are reduced, and the pain is relieved, which is a clinical cure. Therefore, the treatment of bone spurs is actually an anti-inflammatory treatment. This is the answer to the mystery that after treatment of osteoarthritis, the bone spur remains and the symptoms disappear. Therefore, it is important to treat bone spurs in an evidence-based manner.
What are the most appropriate conservative treatments for bone spurs? As each person’s condition is different, there are several ways to take care of it.
(1) Exercise: The function of the joint can be improved by moderate physical exercise, such as walking, cycling or swimming. The pain is more serious patients, the beginning can only muscle contraction without moving the joints, and it is best to exercise in the water, because the weight of the body in the water is only 1/8 of the land weight. gradually, gradually increase the amplitude of the action, first choose the form of non-weight-bearing, and then do weight-bearing exercise after the basic disappearance of pain. During this period do not do climbing, climbing, squatting and tai chi, dance and other activities.
(2) Reduce weight: Excessive weight will accelerate the wear and tear of joint cartilage, causing uneven pressure on the cartilage surface of the joint, resulting in osteophytes.
(3) Medication: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as Fenbid, Cilobal, Ankylosing, etc., can be used.
(4) Osteoprotective drugs: There are mainly two kinds of drugs, the oral ones are glucosamine (such as Otayling, etc.); the joint cavity injections are sodium glutamate (such as Spektor, Arge, etc.), which mainly improve the structure of joints, promote cartilage repair and lubricate joints, thus improving the symptoms of patients with osteoarthrosis.
The appearance of bone spurs is a regular phenomenon, just like various human organs, which begin to age and deteriorate in middle and old age. If the bone spur is very severe and affects daily functional activities, it must be treated. For the treatment of degenerative osteoarthritis, controlling the rate of joint degeneration and enhancing joint stability are the root cause, while relieving joint pain and eliminating bone spurs are the symptoms, requiring both the symptoms and the root cause. From the perspective of the mechanism of the formation of bone superfluous, the stability of the joint will be affected to a certain extent after the simple removal of the bone superfluous, and the bone spur may grow again.
Therefore, once a bone spur grows in a certain part of the body, the patient should first consult a specialist to slow down the degeneration and restore the function of the joint through appropriate exercises and treatment under the guidance of the doctor, rather than expecting to solve all problems by removing the bone spur, and there is no need to leave a psychological burden.
Of course, in some cases, the growth of bone spurs affects joint activities and daily life and must be solved surgically, such as osteoarthritis of the knee joint, arthroscopy, grinding of bone spurs, joint cavity irrigation and total artificial knee surface replacement in the middle and late stages. These are all good ways to resolve joint pain and dysfunction. The key issue is to correctly understand the pathogenesis and role of bone spurs in daily life and to eliminate unnecessary mental burden.