I've spoken to many lumbar fusion patients who complain that "the new hip pain at the harvest site is worse than my old back pain". I have also spoken to many surgeons who firmly believe that the best fusion rate will be accomplished with autograft. (autograft is harvested from YOU, were allograft comes from a donor. (they don't need it anymore.)
There are many products designed to improve fusion options. Some are as simple as developing a usable synthetic bone graft material, or a sophisticated as Bone Morphogenic Protein (BMP). These new products are expensive. Many surgeons are early adopters of these new technologirs, while others are uncomfortable with the unknowns of the new products. The skeptical ones have seen too many examples of seemingly wonderful technology that turns out to be a horror.j
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