Hip fractures in the elderly without osteoporosis

In clinical practice, hip fracture is a very common reason for hospital admission in the elderly. Most subjects over the age of 65 years, experience an injury at the hip mostly after a fall. Many elderly persons suffer from osteoporosis, which is characterised by loss of bone mass and deterioration of bone microarchitecture thus increasing the susceptibility to fracture. Osteoporosis is defined by WHO as a Bone Mineral Density (BMD) of 2.5 standard deviations (SD) below that of a young adult as assessed by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). It has been shown that some patients with a hip fracture have either normal or “osteopenic” hips as defined by DXA (-2.5 <T-score<1). Other diseases that usually affect the elderly population may constitute independent risk factors for falls and fractures, such as diabetes mellitus, neurologic conditions, sarcopenia, use of medication. The clinician’s role apart from treating osteoporosis is also to address secondary causes related to increase risk of fracture including falls in order to decrease the incidence of hip fractures. This article addresses some common pathological conditions that have been shown to predispose for hip fractures individuals regardless of their DXA BMD status.