Signs And Symptoms Of Osteoporosis

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[edit] Signs And Symptoms Of Osteoporosis

Many patients will be asymptomatic and then suddenly get a fracture with or without a fall on one of the typical locations that were pointed out above. The fractures typically are ankle fractures, wrist fractures, compression fractures of vertebral bodies or hip fractures. With more bone loss there is more irritation of the nerve endings in the bone, which results in bone, muscle, and tendon pains.

Typically with weight bearing the pain may be worse than in resting positions such as lying down. If there are compression fractures in the lower back, they typically occur from the 8th thoracic spine vertebral body downwards, but rarely higher up. If there is a compression fracture higher than the 8th thoracic spine vertebral body, there should be a high suspicion for a possible cancer causing this.

Typically a compression fracture leads to a localized pain at the fracture site. The pain would be most severe for about one week, but then often lingers on for another 3 months or longer. With a series of compression fractures in the lower thoracic spine and lumbar spine, the spine appears to be forward bent permanently, which is called a "kyphosis".

It is another sign that osteoporosis likely is the reason behind this. Commonly this can be seen in the aged population. As mentioned above, this can be so pronounced that lower end of the the front rib cage is rubbing on the upper rim of the pelvic bone. Often there is also a higher incidence of pneumonia in the lung bases because of poor lung expansion. In addition the heart reserve is used up to a considerable extent and this puts the kyphotic patient at a higher risk for a heart attack. There might be other symptoms in the case of a secondary osteoporosis. The symptoms of the underlying disease would be present as well as the symptoms described above.

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