Bone spurs, also known as osteophytes, are a common orthopedic condition that can reach an incidence of over 60% in the elderly. Most of the time, its symptoms are relatively mild and have no significant impact on daily life. It can be alleviated by oral medications and intra-articular injections. However, in some patients, the osteophytes are quite serious and have even produced deformation of the joints. Patients are still reluctant to undergo surgery, believing that osteophytes only affect joint activities, so they can just tolerate it and move less. In fact, its impact is much more than that, and its dangers include: 1. It can easily lead to fractures: Severe osteophytes can cause mobility problems, which can easily lead to accidents during activities and fractures after falls. Not only does this increase the patient’s pain, but more seriously, fractures in the elderly are prone to a variety of complications, even leading to life-threatening conditions. For example, the mortality rate can be as high as about 25% in common hip fractures in the elderly. 2, affect the control of internal diseases: osteophytes of the knee joint affect the activities of the human body, which is not conducive to the usual exercise, therefore, it is easy to cause the continuous increase in weight; in turn, the increase in weight increases the burden on the joint, aggravating the osteophytes and further affecting the activities. As you know, moderate activity in many cases is beneficial to the control of medical diseases, such as diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, osteoporosis, etc. Therefore, for severe osteophytes of the knee do not be afraid of surgery. Knee replacement can improve the patient’s quality of life, facilitate the control of medical diseases, and prevent fractures from occurring accidentally.