TEXAS
I had a severely pinched sciatic nerve from 2010 to today, it was miserable, my left leg was in constant pain for years. I had a laminectomy from L5 to S1 in October of 2014, it did not help much. In October of 2015 I had a fusion from L4 to S1 with L5 stabilized. Thanksgiving of 2015 the pain changed and it was worse than ever. I went back in for x-rays and my doctor was taken back by what he saw, two of the titanium caps that hold the rods to the screws were free floating in my back, the rods were sliding up and down the bottom screw heads every time I moved. The doctor just kept repeating to himself "I know I torqued them all down" until I finally asked to see what he was seeing. There they were, these little screw caps (I do not know what else to call them) were loose in my back and laying outside of the rods. He gave me the choice at that time to go back in immediately and install new caps or wait a month and see if the bone graph would still take, I now know it was a mistake to wait... 1-27-16 the graph did not take and I went back in to surgery, he removed the two screws that had lost their caps, installed new and larger ones, installed new caps and then put an extra screw in my left pelvis. He strapped the two rods together around the area of L3 and then ran another strap from the lowest left screw to the new screw in my pelvis. I asked for all of the parts that were removed to be given to me, it has been three weeks and they still have not surfaced. My question is how did the caps come off? There is no way I could have done it, either the doctor did not torque those down during the first fusion or the manufacturer of the screws gave me a bad set.
I had a severely pinched sciatic nerve from 2010 to today, it was miserable, my left leg was in constant pain for years. I had a laminectomy from L5 to S1 in October of 2014, it did not help much. In October of 2015 I had a fusion from L4 to S1 with L5 stabilized. Thanksgiving of 2015 the pain changed and it was worse than ever. I went back in for x-rays and my doctor was taken back by what he saw, two of the titanium caps that hold the rods to the screws were free floating in my back, the rods were sliding up and down the bottom screw heads every time I moved. The doctor just kept repeating to himself "I know I torqued them all down" until I finally asked to see what he was seeing. There they were, these little screw caps (I do not know what else to call them) were loose in my back and laying outside of the rods. He gave me the choice at that time to go back in immediately and install new caps or wait a month and see if the bone graph would still take, I now know it was a mistake to wait... 1-27-16 the graph did not take and I went back in to surgery, he removed the two screws that had lost their caps, installed new and larger ones, installed new caps and then put an extra screw in my left pelvis. He strapped the two rods together around the area of L3 and then ran another strap from the lowest left screw to the new screw in my pelvis. I asked for all of the parts that were removed to be given to me, it has been three weeks and they still have not surfaced. My question is how did the caps come off? There is no way I could have done it, either the doctor did not torque those down during the first fusion or the manufacturer of the screws gave me a bad set.
