Brief Answer:
Understanding HeteroTrophic ossification

Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXXXXX Thanks for coming to HealthCareMagic. Now yu may already know all this but I'm going to try and give you a basic understanding of what heterotropic ossification is and why it's happening.

In situations of quadriplegia, the muscles around the large joints are broken down by the immune system as they are no longer in use. Now on occasion the immune system messes up and instead of breaking down the tissue it tries to scar up the area as if it's trying to heal the muscles. The collagen fibers that get laid down though are defective and over time they get ossified into bone.. So what you eventually have i a situation where bone is being 'deposited' or created out side of the normal areas you would find bone to be.

That having been said, lets move on to treatment.

The most commonly used treatment I know of us Radiation therapy. Often you need only a single dose and the ossification center is gone. Other More conservative therapy is heavy PHYSICAL Therapy with lots of passive stretching. This is thought to slow down and/or stop the ossification centers from growing or getting worse.

So in your patients case. I don't know if I would really put them through radiotherapy, but I would certainly start looking for a good physical therapist and have them start Passive stretches on the patient.

I hope this helps, Let me know what you are thinking,
Take Care
Vin

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