bone graft pain after spine fusion surgeries

  I have had severe chronic pain in my lower back, 5 cm to the right of L5 for years (no sciatica). It is aggravated by sitting and standing. MRI shows collapsed disks. In August 1998 I had an anterior fusion at L5-S1 (using allograft bone dowels); this made the pain much worse. On December 14, 1998 I had a posterior fusion at L4-S1 using pedicel screw instrumentation. They harvested bone from my right iliac crest for grafting. Unfortunately this is the site of all the original pain! I had acute pain at this site for 2 weeks following the 2nd surgery. Now the pain has subsided a bit but it is still very uncomfortable. Even more discomforting is the fact that I can't tell if my pain from that site is bone graft pain or residual pain from before the surgery. It is still impossible for me to sit or stand more than 1/2 hour per day (three weeks after surgery). How long does iliac bone graft pain last? Is it normally aggravated by sitting and standing? Is it possible that I have some neurologic damage? Thank you for your time.
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Dear Patrick,
The benefit to using a patient's own bone for a fusion procedure is that the risk of failure to fuse is less than with cadaveric bone.  The drawback to using autologous bone is that in 30% of patients there is significant pain at the site of the graft harvest, usually in the hip.  Many patients note that the pain from the graft site is worse than the pain from the fusion site.  This pain is most often transient and improves with time.
If your pain is not abating after a few weeks, notify your surgeon for a reevaluation of the situation
Good luck.