Treatment after hip fracture increases.(osteoporosis)(Brief Article)

2002 SEP 19 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The percentage of patients admitted to the hospital with a hip fracture who received treatment for osteoporosis, increased significantly during a 4-year study published in the August 2002 Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (84-A(8)).

Elderly patients and menopausal women who are hospitalized after a hip fracture present an excellent opportunity for osteoporosis treatment, an important cause of bone fracture. Recognizing this opportunity, the National Osteoporosis Foundation and the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons have established guiding principles for treating patients with osteoporotic fractures.

These principles include advice on the importance of dietary or supplemental calcium and vitamin D sources as well as treatment with antiresorptive agents, such as estrogen, calcitonin, bisphosphonates, and raloxifene, for more severe osteoporosis.

The study assessed, first, the rate at which physicians recognized and treated osteoporosis in patients admitted to the hospital with hip fractures and, second, the effectiveness of educational efforts in applying the treatment guidelines sponsored by the National Osteoporosis Foundation and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Michael J. Gardner, MD, Kyle R. Flik, MD, and Joseph M. Lane, MD, the department of orthopaedic surgery, the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York City; and Pekka A. Mooar, MD, department of orthopaedic surgery, Medical College of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann University School of Medicine, studied 300 elderly men and postmenopausal women who were admitted to any one of three large medical centers because of a hip fracture between 1997 and 2000.

The authors studied 25 patients from each center for each year and analyzed medical records and charts for the admitting diagnosis, mechanism of ...