A few days ago, 68-year-old Aunt Liu accidentally fell while walking. When she got up, she felt weak in her legs and pained even when she took a step. Aunt Liu didn’t care at the time, and put the plaster on the sore spot by herself. I thought it would get better, but it backfired. A few days later, Aunt Liu was so in pain that she couldn’t go to the ground, so she could only stay in bed.
The family immediately sent Aunt Liu to the hospital for treatment. Wang Liping, deputy chief physician of the Orthopedics Department of Jinhua Guangfu Cancer Hospital, arranged a CT examination for him, and found that the patient had a hip fracture and required surgery. This fall is not easy! After obtaining the consent of the family and perfecting the preoperative preparations, Wang Liping performed hip replacement surgery for the patient.
“Five cases of joint replacement surgery have been completed this week, which are basically fractures caused by falls.” Wang Liping said that the recent weather has been cold and cold, blood vessels have contracted, and muscles and joints have also become stiff. Coupled with the deterioration of the elderly’s ability to respond to sudden accidents in the outside world, falls frequently occur.
According to Wang Liping, the elderly are basically suffering from osteoporosis, which can easily lead to fractures once they fall. Among them, hip fractures are the most serious, and artificial joint replacement is required to allow the patient to stand again to avoid many complications caused by long-term bed rest and the risk that the broken bone may not heal.
Osteoporosis is a systemic bone disease characterized by decreased bone mass, impaired bone quality, and reduced bone strength, leading to increased bone fragility and susceptibility to fractures. In real life, it is as common as colds and gastroenteritis, and is a chronic disease like high blood pressure and diabetes. Because the early symptoms are not obvious, it is often ignored by people, and it is only noticed when there is a fracture. Therefore, osteoporosis is also known as a silent disease.
Osteoporosis is mainly manifested by pain, short height and hunchback, etc., but the most serious one is complicated fracture, which is called “osteoporotic fracture”. Osteoporosis itself is not terrible. What is terrible is “osteoporotic fracture”, which is a fragility fracture and is the most serious consequence of osteoporosis. Minor trauma and even daily activities can lead to osteoporotic fractures due to decreased bone strength. The most common sites for osteoporotic fractures are the spine, hip, and wrist. Since the risk of refracture is significantly increased after osteoporotic fractures, it is necessary to actively treat osteoporosis at the same time as the treatment of fractures.
The doctor reminds that it is necessary to have a correct understanding and attention, and osteoporosis can be prevented and controlled. Do a good job of “tertiary” prevention and stay away from osteoporosis.
Primary prevention: starting from children and adolescents, and achieving the maximum peak bone mass through reasonable dietary nutrition and appropriate physical exercise, is the best measure to prevent osteoporosis in the later stage of life. Eat more foods high in calcium and phosphorus, such as fish, shrimp, small shrimp, kelp, milk, etc.; adhere to a scientific lifestyle, such as physical exercise, sunbathing more, no smoking, less alcohol, less coffee, strong tea and Contain carbonated drinks, eat less sugar and salt, preserve calcium in the body as much as possible, and enrich calcium stores.
Secondary prevention: For middle-aged people, especially postmenopausal women, bone loss is accelerated. In addition to diet and scientific lifestyle, a bone density test should be carried out every year, and preventive use of active Vitamin D and calcium. Exercise options include walking, jogging, and Tai Chi.
Tertiary prevention: for the elderly or people with osteoporosis. Patients with degenerative osteoporosis should be actively treated with drugs that inhibit bone resorption and promote bone formation, and should also strengthen anti-fall, anti-collision, anti-stumbling, anti-jumping and other measures. For example, adding guardrails to the beds of the elderly at home, placing anti-slip mats in the bathroom, etc.; strengthening self-care awareness, improving self-care level, and actively carrying out scientific interventions, degenerative osteoporosis can be delayed and prevented.
Correspondent Zhu Dongdong Our reporter Dai Weiwen