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High vitamin D deficiency insufficiency rate seen in young patients in large trauma study
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SAN FRANCISCO — Researchers found a vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency prevalence of 77.4% in a large trauma study population, based on research presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons 2012 Annual Meeting.
 Brett D. Crist |
“Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with a lot of different things ranging from cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and fracture nonunion,” Brett D. Crist, MD, who presented the study, said. “As far as we know, this is the largest series looking at orthopedic trauma patients that have fractures.”
Crist and his team conducted a retrospective medical record review of 889 trauma patients and analyzed those over age 18 for 25-hydroxyvitamin D deficiency levels less than 20 ng/ml or insufficiency levels between 20 ng/ml and 32 ng/ml. Outcomes involved the mean, median, mode, Chi squared and Fisher’s exact tests.
Investigators found combined vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency of 77.4%. They calculated vitamin D deficiency alone at 39%, discovering patients between 18 years and 25 years old had less prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency, despite a 55% incidence of low vitamin D levels.
“Younger people are typically better at absorbing vitamin D,” Crist explained.
Crist and colleagues plan to study whether vitamin D deficiency affects nonunion and the feasibility of developing a relevant standardized treatment protocol.
“The take home message is, it is easy to evaluate, it is a simple lab test that does not matter when you take it,” Crist said. “It is easy to treat over the counter with prescription vitamin D … The only patients we do not treat are those with hypercalcemia,” he noted.
Reference:
- Crist BD, Hood MA, Murtha YM, et al. Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in orthopaedic trauma patients. Paper #28. Presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons 2012 Annual Meeting. Feb. 7-11. San Francisco.
- Disclosure: Crist has stock options with Amedica Corporation and Orthopaedic Implant Company, receives research support from Medtronic, Novalign, Synthes and Wound Care Technologies and receives financial or material support from Zimmer.
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