Bone Spur Symptoms

Bones and joints are a very important part of our body. They are vital to the unmeasurable amount of movement we do using them daily. Our body movements would have been totally restricted, if it would not have been for our joints and bone. But unfortunately, with age, and wear and tear, we develop problems related to our joints and bones. Bone Spurs is one of such problems.

Bone Spurs
Bone Spurs is a common word for the medical term called Osteophytes. Bone Spurs refer to abnormal growth or bony projections, especially on joints. Hips, hands, knees and feet are a soft target of bone spurs. In some cases, bone spurs also affect the spine. Hip bone spurs are very common amongst these types or rather bone spur affected areas. Although these bone spurs are not painful by themselves, they create a friction in nerves and bones around them, by rubbing against them, which causes pain. Along with joints, bone spurs appear where ligaments and tendons are connected with a bone. However, it seems from the description that the symptoms are very clear. But they are not very explicit, unfortunately, sometimes they even go undetected. Moreover, these symptoms of bone spurs are also dependent on their location. Here is a detailed overview of the symptoms.

Symptoms of Bone Spurs
Depending upon the part affected, here are the symptoms:

Knee
When it occurs in the knee, there could be difficulty in bending and extending your leg. This is because these bone spurs come in between the tendons and bones which inhibit the smooth movement of knees.

Spine
Bone spurs can push against the nerves or even the spinal cord. That can lead to numbness and pain in a particular part of the body controlled by that nerve center. So numbness and pain could be a possibility.

Neck
Bone spurs in the neck can make things really difficult. The symptoms of a spur in the neck include difficulty in swallowing and breathing. This could be in the case, when a cervical bone spur protrudes inward.

Fingers
If you feel hard lumps under your skin on fingers, it could be a symptom of a bone spur. These lumps also make the fingers disfigured along with intermittent pain.

Shoulders
Symptoms include an experience of restricted range of the shoulder movements. This is because the rotor cuff, a tendon group responsible for the shoulder movements, can be rubbed upon by the bone spurs. Tendonitis in your rotator cuff could also be a symptom of bone spur.

Causes of Bone Spurs
Bone spurs are mostly associated with being a by-product of a disease, mainly osteoarthritis. In Osteoarthritis, the cartilages in the joints are broken down. The body, obviously needs to control damage in the form of creation of new areas in the bone, along the edges of bones which already exist. Other causes include plantar fasciitis, spondylosis and spinal stenosis (a condition, where bone spurs lead to narrowing of bones comprising or making up your spine, which puts pressure on the spinal cord). Another reason for what causes bone spurs could be simple aging and nothing else. Even people who do not have osteoarthritis or any other related diseases can suffer from bone spurs. In fact, in a few situations, bone spurs can really be advantageous as they give stability to joints and help distribute weight for cartilage protection.

The bad part is, that there are no proper or certified medications, to reduce the symptoms. Non steroidal and inflammatory drugs and surgery are the only two courses of treatment. So you just have to grin and bear it or opt for a surgery and take care as much as possible.