If s/he's feeling better and not in as much pain as before, does that matter?

We're kind of guessing our way around this issue, as none of us are surgeons. I spoze it's possible that the fusion covers enough surface area that removing a portion of it to remove hardware would still leave enough intact to stabilize the spine.

Also, in some of these procedures, it may not necessarily be the hardware that fuses, but the cage that replaces the disc, which may be (and often is from what I've read) of a different material than the hardware.

Lots of variables...

Doc