A basic component of any spinal fusion is the bone graft.
Bone grafting is used for many types of orthopedic procedures that require bone to heal.
The most common use of bone graft is to stimulate the healing of bone. When bone tissue is crushed into powder and placed around a fracture or a fusion site, there are chemicals in the bone that stimulate the bone to heal. Even bone taken from someone else will stimulate bone to heal. Although, bone taken from the same person may be better because of the possibility of the bone graft having remaining live bone cells during the transfer. The second way that bone graft is used is for structure.