Health is the main life value for any person, remaining for all time. And, unfortunately, it cannot be bought, completely returned or restored to its former level, if you do not pay attention to the signals sent by the body in response to the beginning deviations with a dismissive attitude. To assist humanity in this difficult struggle, medical science was invented, which allows to identify and cure many human suffering. Indeed, often, against the background of seeming good health, one or another serious illness can occur. A similar situation occurs with the so-called latent, or, more simply, hidden course of the disease, when the doctor’s diagnosis sounds like a bolt from the blue and leads to stupor from surprise.
Invisible danger
It is to such violations that doctors often attribute various pathological formations in humans. They are able to bring severe pain and disability to the patient, especially osteophytes of the vertebrae and large joints related to such findings.
The danger of the mentioned changes lies in their late detection at the final stages of the disease, and an adequate therapeutic effect is possible only with a minimal positive effect. A reasonable question may immediately arise: "Osteophytes - what is it?" Such a peculiar name was given to a separate group of diseases that have, based on their pathogenesis, the development of bone pathology according to the type of growths, which are determined mainly using additional examination methods.
Osteophytes - what is it?
Literally translated from Greek, this medical term refers to a bone sprout (osteon - bone, phyton - offspring, plant). Osteophytes themselves can look like spikes, teeth, protrusions or tubercles, larger ones are called exostoses. At the heart of their structure, such formations have a spongy or compact bone structure. In other words, we can say about osteophytes that this is a dense neoplasm of the type of locally limited growths due to a violation in the direction of excessive bone synthesis at the site of inflammation of its outer shell.
Starting processes are traumatic effects or infectious agents, including in the soft tissues surrounding the skeleton. As a cause, a violation of calcium metabolism in the body is also considered. There are several main varieties of osteophytes in accordance with their etiological cause. Post-traumatic, degenerative-dystrophic, neurogenic processes underlie the start of the entire pathogenetic mechanism of the disease.
Background laid since childhood ...
It should be noted that the whole complex of changes in the spine begins from early childhood,
even from the moment when the baby begins to sit down and gradually move from a horizontal position to a vertical upright upright on two legs. As a result, an adult already has to pay for such evolutionary changes with a deterioration in the state of health of his musculoskeletal system, and, first of all, the spinal column due to constant overloads and everyday injuries if the necessary physiological standards are not observed. On their own, marginal osteophytes are often regarded, especially recently, as components of the process of involution of spinal structures, leading to dystrophy of the fibrous ring and sequential violations of the anatomical and topographic relationship of bone structures and ligaments.
Spondylosis - protection from destruction by time and disease
Similar mechanisms are observed with the development of bone oncology or with metastases of breast or pancreatic cancer. Benign tumors also contribute to the disruption of the normal development of cartilage, stimulating the growth of pathological bone tumors. We can say about osteophytes of the spine that this is a kind of manifestation of the reaction of the body's defense to the destruction of the intervertebral disc. Medical science combines all this into one capacious term spondylosis.
In case of violation of the mechanical-dynamic indicators of any locomotor act produced by the human body, involvement of large and small joints of the limbs is possible. With a change in the physiological norms of the motor process, scoliosis can occur, which occurs in almost every second modern inhabitant. However, you can meet not only the defeat of the vertebrae. Recently, diagnoses such as osteophytes of the hip joint, neck, knee, and calcaneus are not uncommon.
Predisposing factors
The intervertebral space filled with cartilage is normally able to provide an optimal ratio of numerous articular surfaces and their amortization when walking. However, with disk pathology that develops with excessive or unphysiological stress, poor posture, prolonged sitting position and similar conditions, leading, for example, to osteochondrosis, changes in these already imperfect joints are observed. Overweight, a flat foot, various metabolic disorders, injuries and heredity predispose to this.
As a result, the appearance of complete and incomplete dislocations, various inflammatory processes is characteristic, which is why, as a protective reaction, compaction and proliferation of bone tissue develops in the marginal areas of the articular surfaces of the vertebral bodies, including to increase the area of their support on the surrounding tissue. The described changes are especially pronounced at an older age, after 50 years, when the processes of wear of the body provoke the development of pathology not only in the structure of the skeleton, but also on the part of many organs and systems.
Symptoms of a neck lesion
Any part of the spinal column can be involved in the pathological process. Depending on the level of damage, a characteristic clinical picture will correspond to it. Osteophytes of the cervical spine are usually formed on the posterolateral surfaces of the vertebrae and are manifested by frequent migraine attacks, local pain in the neck, radiating to the shoulder, arm or shoulder blade, a feeling of stiffness when moving the head in an upright position. Due to the concomitant effects on the blood circulation of adjacent organs and nerve plexuses, pain can appear in the region of the heart, as well as signs of circulatory failure of the brain, such as tinnitus, visual impairment, aggravated by tilting the head back. Cervical osteophyte, like similar formations in other parts of the spine and joints, can be determined using x-ray studies, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging.
Features of manifestations of bone growths in the lower back
Given the inactivity in the joints of the vertebrae of the thoracic region, the clinic of bone tumors of this localization is less bright and often passes unnoticed by the patient. Mostly anterior osteophytes form here.
Pain in the lower back, especially during exertion, a feeling of numbness and tingling in the limbs, as well as a violation of the normal functioning of the bladder and intestines, are more characteristic of lumbar spondylosis. Given the maximum pressure in this part of the back of the vertebrae against each other, due to the arising pathology of the cartilaginous disk, anterolateral osteophytes are formed here. Their originality lies in the horizontal direction, the unusual shape and the frequent orientation of neighboring growths towards each other (the so-called "kissing" compositions).
The most sensitive formations are localized on the dorsal surfaces of the vertebrae and are called posterior osteophytes. The pain syndrome is caused by compression of the adjacent nerve trunks through the openings between the bone structures.
Which doctor should I go to?
As soon as an unpleasant or painful sensation occurs in the back or limbs, you should immediately seek medical help, and not self-medicate. The easiest way is to make an appointment with a local therapist who will advise or immediately schedule an examination by a neurologist or rheumatologist. If there is a vertebrologist in the clinic, with pain in the spine, you can independently go to his office. With pathology in the arm or leg, it does not hurt to consult an orthopedic surgeon. It is possible that there will be a need to examine a surgeon or a neurosurgeon. At the final stage of treatment, massage, physiotherapy and physiotherapists will help.
How to confirm the presence of osteophytes?
A competent specialist can be diagnosed, especially when analyzing complaints and medical history, already at the stage of palpation of the osteophytes themselves, defined as dense, painless and immobile growths, and during a complete neurological examination.
If it is impossible to feel the detailed pathological formations, due to the physiological characteristics of the patient or the small size of the bone sprout, the doctor prescribes additional diagnostic methods. These include, as already mentioned above, X-ray examination, computed or magnetic resonance imaging.
Thanks to a detailed study of bone pathology in the affected area with the help of such modern high-tech examination methods, it is possible not only to make a correct and timely clinical diagnosis, but also to identify complications by the type of compression of the spinal cord and nerve roots, as well as help to prescribe the necessary adequate treatment for each specific case.
Frequent localization of pathology outside the spine
Hip osteophytes are a sign of such a pathology as deforming osteoarthritis with the development of a limitation of the amplitude of full movement in the acetabulum of this bone joint. In addition, the history of pathological disorders can be a history of a femoral neck fracture , diabetes mellitus, brucellosis, syphilis, osteomyelitis and other inflammatory processes due to a concomitant metabolic failure in the surrounding tissues.
The calcaneus osteophyte , or in the common follicle of a spur, is capable of causing severe pain and is detected during x-ray examination in the form of an additional blotch or spine-shaped process.
Tearing of the periosteum is a more characteristic process in the development of osteophytes of large joints, for example, knee or elbow, with their complex injuries or dislocations. When a damaged area is healed, the outer bone membrane is compacted with the formation of hypertrophic structures. Therefore, in medical practice, it is now not uncommon to hear the diagnosis of arthrosis, which includes such a component as osteophytes of the knee joint.
Treatment without surgery
Modern medicine, depending on the indications and stage of the process, has several approaches to this pathology in the arsenal of treatment. Conservative therapy suggests combating similar articular problems in their initial stages of development or mild forms with the help of medications. The main group includes non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, for example, Nise, Nimulide, Ibuprofen, Diclofenac and similar drugs. Their main effect is due to the anti-inflammatory effect, followed by a decrease in edema and pain.
In addition, adjuvants are prescribed that contain vitamin B complexes, nicotinic acid, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, chondroprotectors, and vasodilator drugs. Local use of ointments with a warming effect can relieve pain for a short time due to distracting effects.
Osteophytes of the knee joint have their own characteristics , the treatment of which is somewhat different due to the possibility and frequent need for intra-articular administration of drugs.
Other effective treatments
Massage, reflexology, medical gymnastics also have healing properties, improving microcirculation and elasticity of the muscle fibers surrounding the changed bone frame. In the history of medicine, there are clinical observations indicating the reverse development and resorption of pathological structures of the vertebrae, including against the background of the appearance of osteoporosis.
However, persistent painful pains, ineffectiveness of drug therapy or a severe degree of damage to the supporting system will orient the doctor in favor of prescribing surgery to remove osteophytes and relieve pathological compression of nerves. Contraindications to the operation are general diseases, such as diabetes mellitus and severe cardiovascular pathology.
Prevention is easier than cure
You should always remember that the operation will relieve a certain symptom only for a while, but the disease as a whole, a miracle cure, has not yet been invented. All this does not exclude the possibility of the recurrence or appearance in the future of new osteophytes with characteristic pathological changes and the clinical picture.
Therefore, in order to prevent the occurrence of such disorders, an active and healthy lifestyle should be maintained. And this means eating right, sleeping in accordance with physiological requirements on a flat firm surface with a small pillow-roller under the head, constantly monitoring, while sitting, your posture and posture, if necessary for a long stay in one position, take regular breaks for performing gymnastic exercises for back health.
Only by learning in detail about the existence of such a disease as osteophytes, what is it, having examined their characteristic clinical manifestations, as well as modern diagnostic capabilities and therapeutic measures, will it be possible to prevent the occurrence of such an ailment in time or to repulse already developed pathological changes.