[Treatment of osteoporosis provided from the orthopaedic surgeon's standpoint]

Osteoporosis is associated with increased risk of fractures at most skeletal sites. Hip fractures have much greater prognostic significance in terms of health than any other single type of fracture. However, symptomatic vertebral fractures and other non-hip fractures also represent enormous morbidity and economic burdens, and signal increased risk of future fractures of all types, including the hip. There is convincing evidence that two bisphosphonates(alendronate and risedronate) reduce the risk of both spine and non-spine fractures. The objective of this paper is to summarize the literature concerning the consequences of osteoporotic fractures, and the effectiveness of pharmacologic agents for preventing fractures and their consequences, emphasizing a systematic, evidence-based summary of treatment results from randomized, controlled trials that were published previously.