Osteochondrosis, anybody know what it is? According to Google I'm a teenager or a quick growing animal such as a horse or a pig..!

[Smee]

Obviously I'm neither (much as I'd like to still have a teenager's body ). Seriously though, was told by Neurosurgeon that MRI shows I have Spinal Osteochondrosis, and it's only fixable with spinal fusion, which is obviously not to be undertaken lightly. Much as I want to get rid of my back pain, I need to find out more/know what questions to ask. Anybody got any ideas - am googling but getting nowhere fast.

Bump. anyone out there got any ideas?

My medical dictionary says it is the development of a small amount of bone material on the cartilage of a joint (in your case, the vertabrae). In children spontaneous healing may occur but adults usually require surgery to or remove the bone fragment

Sorry, not on the cartilage !

It is an extra nodule of bony matter on the joint, as far as I can tell.

the root 'chondro' refers to cartilage and 'osteo' refers to bone. 'osis' means diseased condition.

In my teenage years I had an osteochondroma removed from my knee. Apart from the scar, no lasting issue at all. Not sure about it in a spinal context - sounds hugely more complicated.

Sure a friend of mine had part of her spine fused - she had terrible back pain, could hardly walk. is now really well and happy with the op.
Took a while to recover from IIRC.

My dd2 had an osteochondroma removed above her knee too. The surgeon waited a few years to do it so it was well away from the joint, and therefore simpler. A spinal one is presumably much more complicated. One possible reason we were given at the outset was arsenic in the diet .

Ah - that all sounds more than helpful and also mighty like what the Consultant was trying to explain. What I can't fathom is that apparently my bone (or is it the cartilage?) is still active, so trying to regenerate - almost as though I am still a teenager. I think the distorted growth has worn away the disc, so there's no cushion. That's why they seem to want to fuse the disc and put a metal plate in. What I can't understand is if this is an ongoing growth, so could grow up the spine, or just localised. Being fair to the surgeons, they were all (3 of them!) very good trying to explain it all, but I got befuddled by the science. Thanks for the posts though. + reassuring to hear about your friend JKSinFear