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Osteoporosis Osteoporosis Prevention

Preventing Osteoporosis Fractures

Summary & Participants

The greatest fear among women living with osteoporosis is bone fracture. Hip or spinal fractures can be devastating to the lives of otherwise healthy women. Tune in as we take a close look at the risk of fractures in those with osteoporosis, and what can be done to avoid them.

Medically Reviewed On: July 18, 2008

Webcast Transcript

MICHELLE WARREN, MD: It's a big operation, and patients who are elderly are taken out of their environment for a long period of time. Very often you do need blood transfusions because you can bleed into the broken hip. So there are issues of blood pressure and blood pressure falling. You're quite sick after a hip fracture. It's not a small event at all.

DAVID R. MARKS, MD: What about spinal fractures, the very common fractures that occur? Are they as devastating?

MICHELLE WARREN, MD: No, they're not quite as devastating, but they are an important signal that there's osteoporosis, and they're very common. The problem with spinal fractures is that they cause terrible pain. Patients can be in bed for two weeks to a month without knowing that they have a spinal fracture, because very often we don't look for them. But if you've had one spinal fracture, you have four times the chance of getting another within a year, so it's an important thing to know about.

DAVID R. MARKS, MD: There's also wrist fractures. Those are also common.

MICHELLE WARREN, MD: Right, what they call a Colles' fracture. They are common because as patients get older, if they trip and fall they're apt to fall on an outstretched hand and they break that bone. That is also often a sign of osteoporosis, but not always. It's not quite as common. It just happens to be a very common fracture because elderly people tend to fall a lot.

DAVID R. MARKS, MD: Are those the three most common fractures, hip, wrist and spinal fractures?

MICHELLE WARREN, MD: Right, Colles' of the wrist, hip and spine are the most common.

DAVID R. MARKS, MD: What is the cost of all this financially? Is there any kind of estimate?

MICHELLE WARREN, MD: The last time I looked, the cost to the healthcare system is enormous. It's one of the most important charges to Medicare. It's in the billions of dollars. So it's a big issue. The problem is, of course, it tends to be a silent disease and you don't know you have it until all of a sudden you have a hip fracture. Very often, once a patient has a hip fracture it's too late to intervene aggressively, to really help that patient get back to being independent. Not always, but about 20 percent of patients, no matter how you treat them, still end up very crippled by osteoporosis.

DAVID R. MARKS, MD: Briefly, what can a person do to try to prevent these fractures?

MICHELLE WARREN, MD: You can choose your parents wisely, because it's a familial disease. You can eat well when you're an adolescent. You can exercise. As you get older, if you think you have risk factors, you need to get a bone density test, and it should be done for a woman at menopause, because that's when she will lose a lot of bone. If you don't have risk factors, then you should always have a bone density test after 65.

DAVID R. MARKS, MD: And obviously following up with the doctor regularly is the most important factor.

MICHELLE WARREN, MD: Right. But I find that women have to ask for this bone density test, because doctors are very busy, and if they go in with another problem, that may not be addressed. So I find that women have become educated about this issue and it's important to ask for a bone density test.

DAVID R. MARKS, MD: Thank you for joining us. Women, take charge of your health care. Thanks for joining our webcast. I'm Dr. David Marks. Goodbye.

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