I've seen bone wax used many times, but in only one situation. When anterior osteophytes are being removed because they may interfere with swallowing after ADR surgery, the surgeon uses bone wax so that site does not release the osteoblasts that will lead to more bone growth and possible auto fusion. Other sites that are ground away with the high speed burr is not treated with bone wax, because they'll be 'sealed' with the prosthesis completely covering them.
Following this, bone wax will only be used in much more severe cases with much more work being done. This will lead to longer OR times and more invasive interventions. I don't know if the reference was to spine surgery, but comparing bone wax cases to non-bone wax cases is not comparing like surgeries. That may account for the difference in infection rates. Also, infection rates vary widely from surgeon to surgeon. I would be interested in learning more about the subtleties of the data.
If there was grinding of anterior osteophytes in my neck surgery, I hope that bone wax was applied.
Mark
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