Evaluation and treatment of bone disease after fragility fracture.

Bone mineral density and other measuring tests are part of the risk assessment of primary and secondary osteoporosis necessary in treating patients after fragility fracture. A better understanding of factors contributing to insufficiency fracture in osteoporotic bone is essential to guide the clinician's intervention in this disease affecting 25 million women in the United States and responsible for an estimated 700,000 vertebral and 300,000 hip fractures every year. Prevention of future fractures by slowing or stopping bone loss, maintaining bone strength, and minimizing or eliminating factors contributing to fractures, through pharmacotherapy, education, and lifestyle changes, can help slow annual health care expenditures for osteoporotic fractures, which now exceed 17 billion dollars, more than for breast and gynecological cancers combined.