What Is The Cost For Bone Spur or Osteophyte Removal Surgery?

What Is A Bone Spur or Osteophyte And When Is Surgery Required For Removal Of It?

A bone spur in medical terms is known as an osteophyte, which is an abnormal bony projection which usually develops along the bones. Though a bone spur can form in any bone, it is usually seen in the knees, elbows, and spine.

Some of the causes of bone spur may be the body’s response to inflammation, a result of osteoarthritis, repetitive stress injury as a result of constantly playing certain sports. Ill fitting shoes are perhaps one of the most common causes of development of a bone spur or osteophyte.

What Is The Cost For Bone Spur or Osteophyte Removal Surgery?

In most of the cases, bone spurs are asymptomatic, but in some cases they cause severe pain and reduction in range of motion of the affected joint, which requires treatment.

Bone spur or osteophyte can be treated both conservatively as well as surgically. For most cases of bone spurs, conservative treatments in the form of antiinflammatory medications and corticosteroid injections to calm down the pain and swelling is enough for treating the symptoms of bone spurs.

However, in certain cases where these approaches are deemed ineffective then surgical intervention is recommended where the bone spurs or osteophyte is entirely removed.

While there is complete insurance cover for any surgery that is performed and bone spur or osteophyte surgery being no exception, there are certain set of individuals who do not have insurance or have not renewed their insurance. For such individuals, the cost of the surgery tends to be a defining factor as to whether to go for definitive treatment of a heel spur or not even if surgical intervention is found to be necessary. This article gives a brief overview of the cost of a Bone Spur or Osteophyte Surgery.

What Is The Cost For Surgery For Removal Of Bone Spur or Osteophyte?

The cost of a bone spur or osteophyte surgery is quite variable and depends on the area where the spur is present, how complex is it to remove the spur entirely, and also the geographic location or the state where the surgery is supposed to be performed.

While there is complete insurance coverage for most cases of bone spur or osteophyte surgery, there are some people who either do not have insurance or have not had renewal of their insurance.

For such individuals, the estimated cost for a bone spur surgery can be broadly broken down into three parts, which are the cost of the facility where the surgery will be performed, the fees of the anesthesiologist who will give the anesthesia where it is local or regional, and the fee of the surgeon who will actually perform the bone spur removal surgery.

Cost of Facility: Bone spur surgery is usually done as an outpatient and thus cost of the facility may not be that much unless the patient has to spend some time as an inpatient in the hospital, for which charges of room will have to be borne by the patient. Normally, cost of the facility is not much and may range anywhere from $150 to 300.

Anesthesia Cost: The medications used for giving anesthesia and the other equipments that are utilized are provided by the facility and hence the charges of the equipments are included in the facility costs.

The fee of the anesthesiologist also varies depending on the type of anesthesia given to the patient and complexity of it along with the insurance provider of the patient.

In case, if the patient has no insurance, then the fees of the anesthesiologist will have to be borne by the patient and which can be around $200 to $300 in small states and around $600 to $800 in big states.

Surgeon Fee: This perhaps will cost an individual a lot more in case if one does not have insurance. The surgeon who will perform the actual bone spur removal will charge anywhere between $600 to 1000 (for a state like Utah) for the surgery, although this cost is significantly higher in big states like Michigan or New York. In cases where bone spur is removed from the foot then additional costs for crutches and walking aids will have to be borne by the patient.

Overall, in cases where a bone spur surgery is performed in small states like Utah then overall cost of the surgery will hover somewhere around $1500-$2000 whereas this price exponentially increases in states like Michigan or New York where it may go up to in ranges of $5000 to $10,000.

In conclusion, the cost of a bone spur surgery is significantly variable from state to state and includes the cost of the facility where the surgery is performed, the anesthesiologist fees, and the fees of the surgeon which cumulatively comes to around $2000 in hospitals in a state like Utah and $5000 to $10,000 in states like Michigan or New York. There may be additional costs of crutches or walking aids in case if bone spur surgery is performed on the foot.

Also Read:

Team PainAssist
Team PainAssist
Written, Edited or Reviewed By: Team PainAssist, Pain Assist Inc. This article does not provide medical advice. See disclaimer
Last Modified On:November 22, 2018

Recent Posts

Related Posts