RESUMO
BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Osteoporosis affects 75 million people in the United States, Japan and Europe. PURPOSE: The purpose of this article is to review the severity of the problem of osteoporosis and thereby report the need for responsibility of today's spine orthopedic surgeons to recognize those at risk for osteoporosis, order diagnostic studies and treat patients' appropriately. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: A spine specialty clinic took a sample of 325 different patients who had a bone mass densiometer (BMD) test to look at what percent of patients were osteoporotic. RESULTS: Twenty-one and a half percent of the patients tested positive for osteoporosis. CONCLUSION: There are millions of people with osteoporosis in the world's clinics. As the population ages, we will see a dramatic increase in the incidence of this disease unless appropriate intervention is undertaken. Osteoporosis is preventable and treatable.
