Vitamin D, calcium and albumin bloodserum levels in Belgian orthopedic patients - is systematic screening justified?
Acta Orthop Belg . 2020 Jun;86(2):185-192.
Robin Tjeenk Willink, Bernadette Devos, Bart Vundelinckx, Jo De Schepper, Jan Vanderstappen, Kris De Mulder
Falls and Fractures category contains the following
257 items in FALLS and FRACTURES - Vitamin D and Calcium cost-effectively reduce falls and fractures – April 2019
- see also Overview Seniors and Vitamin D
Falls
- Fall prevention - Vitamin D is one of the ways - umbrella review Jan 2024
- Deaths due to falls doubled in just a decade (age-adjusted, perhaps decreased vitamin D) – June 2019
- Preventing Falls in Older Adults – Vitamin D combination is the best - JAMA Meta-analysis Nov 2017
- Falls cut in half by 100,000 IU vitamin D monthly - RCT 2016
- Falls reduced by a third if achieved 40 ng level vitamin D– RCT Sept 2018
- Note: It took 6 months to get to that level. Most trials last only 3 months
- Vitamin D prevents falls – majority of meta-analyses conclude – meta-meta analysis Feb 2015
- Falls reduced by Vitamin D: 13 percent reduction if more than 700 IU – review of 38 trials – Aug 2022
Fracture
- Hip fractures are predicted by 10 factors – low Vitamin D is the biggest – Aug 2023
- Vitamin D and fractures – 24 meta-analyses and counting – Dec 2014
- Low trauma bone fractures in seniors – considering Vitamin D loading dose for all, without testing – Nov 2019
- Vitamin K (any amount and any kind) reduced bone fractures by 24 percent – meta-analysis – May 2019
- 75+ Hip fracture items in VitaminDWiki title Click here for details
 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki
In the setting of fracture care, orthopedic surgeons are primarily focused on treating the fracture itself, but more and more attention is being paid to prevention of such fractures and identifying risk factors associated with worse postoperative prognoses. In our study we collected postoperative vitamin D, calcium and albumin bloodserum levels from 163 patients who were admitted with a femur fracture and from 233 patients who were admitted for an elective hip arthroplasty during the period of 365 days.
Results : 84.21% of the fracture population had a vitamin D deficiency (< 20 ng/mL) as well as 77.30% of the elective hip arthroplasty population. There were no significant seasonal differences in the fracture population. 80.27% of the fracture population had an albumin deficiency (< 29 g/L) compared to 38.75% of the reference population. There were no significant statistical differences in vitamin D and albumin bloodserum levels between the under 75 years old age group and the over 75 years old age group.
We can make the tentative assumption that systematic screening for all hip fracture patients and all elective hip arthroplasty patients admitted to our orthopedic ward - independent of their age, season or pathology - is justified and we advise other hospitals to implement this as well.
Belgian Hospital standard of care – test all orthopedic patients for low Vitamin D – June 20203527 visitors, last modified 01 Mar, 2021, This page is in the following categories (# of items in each category)