Hip Fracture - Risk Factors

Risk Factors

Hip fracture following a fall is likely to be a pathological fracture. The most common causes of weakness in bone are:

  • Osteoporosis.
  • Homocysteine, a toxic 'natural' amino acid linked to the cause of heart disease,
  • Other metabolic bone diseases such as Paget's disease, osteomalacia, osteopetrosis and osteogenesis imperfecta. Stress fractures may occur in the hip region with metabolic bone disease.
  • Benign or malignant primary bone tumours are rare causes of hip fractures.
  • Metastatic cancer deposits in the proximal femur may weaken the bone and cause a pathological hip fracture.
  • Infection in the bone is a rare cause of hip fracture.

Read more about this topic:  Hip Fracture

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