Missing screws?
 

I had a ct done last week to evaluate my continued deficiencies following cervical laminectomy with fusion and instrumentation that was done in Dec '13. The ct showed that 2 screws are now "absent" that were seen on plain film in February. Anyone know what this means and where the heck did they go?

Presumably you asked this of the doctor/radiologist, and what was their comment?

Sometimes screws and metalwork are only necessary until the bone heals/fuses together, so potentially the screws may no longer be important - but I would have thought the medics would be keen to establish where they are! I would ask them again where they are, they must be somewhere and I doubt the body could absorb them.

It is amazing how things like this can move about, I was recently reading about microchips in dogs, these are placed in the neck, and in some dogs they will move from the neck and have been found in many places within the body, I read one account of one being located in the tail

There are resorbable screws today... maybe you had those?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0322111947.htm

I have no idea if they are using them, however, in the spine.

Interesting stuff, so the screw eventually becomes natural bone - I wonder if one day they can install hardware that will eventually become bone.