[Translated article] Approach to the elderly patient with vertebral fracture due to bone fragility

Abstract

Osteoporosis is a metabolic and systemic disease characterised by alterations at the level of bone tissue with loss of bone mineral density, changes in microarchitecture, mineralisation and remodelling that determine greater bone fragility and risk of fracture.

Falls in the elderly are a risk factor closely related to fragility fractures and numerous studies demonstrate this relationship.

Vertebral fractures are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The epidemiology differs from osteoporotic fractures at other skeletal sites, as only one-third are clinically recognised. In the elderly, the approach to osteoporotic vertebral fracture involves comprehensive evaluation of the patient, since it is both a cause and a consequence of multiple geriatric syndromes. This fracture, in its acute phase and subsequently, can lead to destabilisation of other organs and systems of the elderly, medical complications at different levels, functional deterioration, dependence, and even the need for institutionalisation.

Therefore, it is important to carry out a multiple assessment of patients with vertebral fractures, addressing not only the history and risk factors of osteoporosis, but also those factors that lead to falls, as well as a comprehensive geriatric assessment and the complications closely associated with it.

In this chapter we address each of these aspects that are necessary in the individual and multidimensional approach to the elderly patient with vertebral fracture due to bone fragility.