Osteoporosis News

More than one-third of patients with COPD worldwide may have osteoporosis, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published in CHEST.

Although almost 25% of patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty were eligible to receive osteoporosis medications, recently published results found 5% of patients received therapy preoperatively or postoperatively.

It is common for orthopaedic surgeons to encounter patients with low-energy fractures. This has led to increasing interest in prevention of secondary fractures among orthopaedic surgeons. Hip fractures are the most serious outcome of osteoporosis and increase the mortality and morbidity among older patients. An evidence-based method is available that estimates bone mineral density at the hip, providing vital, early information on the patient’s bone density.

Women aged 80 and older with osteoporosis and substantial comorbidity have a high 5-year probability of hip fracture and may still benefit from drug therapy for prevention of hip fracture, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

DESTIN, Fla. — Although there are many medications that can reduce the risk for, and the burden of, osteoporotic fractures, most of those drugs are not being used, and the osteoporosis treatment gap is “very large,” according to E. Michael Lewiecki, MD, FACP, FACE, of the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.

DESTIN, Fla. — Although new advances in osteoporosis treatment have been effective in improving bone density and reducing fracture risk, the most important development in recent years has been the understanding of how best to use these drugs most effectively, according to Michael McClung, MD, founding director of the Oregon Osteoporosis Center.

The burden of musculoskeletal diseases increased significantly between 2000 and 2015, and they are now the second most common cause of years lived with disability in the world, according to data published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Osteoporosis screening and treatment was infrequently performed in patients with recent stroke, according to a study published in Stroke.

The overall evidence indicates that drug therapies for osteoporosis reduce the risk for clinical fractures, but long-term use may increase the risk for rare, but serious harms, according to findings published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Men aged at least 70 years receive less treatment for osteoporosis than women of the same age, according to findings published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research. In addition, black adults are undertreated for osteoporosis compared with other populations.