TITLE:
Hospitalizations for Osteoporosis-Related Fractures: Analysis from Eastern Saudi Arabia
AUTHORS:
Mir Sadat-Ali, AbdulAziz H. Al-Shams, Zainab R. Al Ghanim, Khaleel I. Al Batran, Yousef M. Al Jamaan, Abrar S. Hashishi, Faisal M. Al Anaz, Abdul Raheem A. Al Talib, Fatima Abdulmohsen Mohamed
KEYWORDS:
Fragility Fractures, Saudi Arabia, Osteopenia, Osteoporosis
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Orthopedics,
Vol.10 No.6,
June
2,
2020
ABSTRACT: Background and Objectives: Osteoporosis causes fragility fractures which increase the morbidity and mortality in the elderly. Our objective was to look at the hospital admissions due to fragility fractures and site of fractures. Methods: This is a retrospective study of a 2-year period (2017-2018), in which we evaluated all the admissions of fragility fractures at King Fahd Hospital of the University, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. A Fragility Fracture is a fracture which occurs in patients with low bone mass due to a fall from a standing height. The data were gathered from the Quadru Med patient care system for patients over the age of 50 years: sex, site of fracture, previous fractures, and treatment meted out. The hospitalization rate for fragility fractures was calculated by taking into consideration of all the adult admissions to the orthopaedic department. Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of the Hospital and the Imam Abdul Rahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam. Results: During the study period 187 patients with fragility fractures were admitted. The mean age was 68.55 ± 12.43 years; fracture femur was the most common with 136 (72.7%), tibia 15 (8%) and spine 14 (7.5%). At the time of discharge based on the T score of spine 50 were osteopenic and 45 were osteoporotic. Overall adult admission for the study period was 1410 patients and 13.26% were patients with fragility fractures. There were 3 (1.6%) deaths within the first 30 days in the hospital. Conclusions: Fracture femur was the most common fragility fracture seen in our study. Orthopaedic surgeons should be ready to treat all fragility fractures and treat osteoporosis appropriately so that a second fracture is prevented.