teteri66

I don't recall if in all the papers you have to sign before you go into surgery if there was something pertaining to BMP. That surgery was in 2008 and I just remember signing lots of different releases, without reading most of them. I did not know I was having BMP and back then I didn't know to ask much of anything. The surgeon described what he was going to do, but it was in super-watered down language, not the least bit technical. I think he may have told me about it in passing during one of my appointments, but I don't recall.

The way you find out is to request copies of all operating room notes after surgery.


I think your thinking is sound. The cancer data is pretty new and for people who had surgery five years ago, they hopefully have recovered and don't have further back issues, so aren't dwelling on their spine surgeries. They may be aware of the cancer link, but chances are good that most patients are not aware of it, and, are not even aware they had BMP. Unless they are educated patients, they won't know the specifics.

A client of my husband's has had three spine surgeries and he claims to not even know what type of surgery he had -- like whether it was a discectomy or fusion or just what. All he knew was that he had bad sciatic pain that kept him from playing tennis! I couldn't believe an intelligent man wouldn't want to know what was being done to his body. He did not. He just knew something hurt and wanted it fixed!

It seems that if a product is used off-label the surgeon should have more reason to tell the patient...not less. Mine was technically off label because even though I had a cage and it was a lumbar surgery, it was done posteriorly.