Hello ,

Here is my question.....When the healing of a bone fracture, f.e the
femur , is finished,  does anyone know if the density of the part of the
bone that has grown during the healing changes????...Does it increase or
decrease?....

Thank you,
Carlos.

Hopefully a doctor will also reply, but here's what I recall when I
studied up on this matter after I broke my tibia four years ago.  I
think I found some references in the Wheeless Textbook of Orthopaedics
http://medmedia.com/med.htm
Some studies have found that bone density decreases by up to 15 per cent
in the hip area of the leg that was broken during the first year after
the break, when this is compared to the other hip. (To put this into
perspective, someone with a decrease in normal bone density of more than
5 or 10 per cent is considered to have osteoporosis.)  As I remember,
they were studying people in their 60s with broken tibias, but maybe the
same would apply to broken femurs as well.  Now, as I also recall, other
studies show that at the fracture site itself bone density increases in
the weeks or months following the fracture but areas of the same bone a
few inches away from the break show somewhat of a decrease.
What I concluded from this reading is that when you break your leg you
should be careful not to fall or injure that leg again because it could
be more prone to additional breaks for some time after the fracture
itself has healed. See this site for some advice on preventing falls:
http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/fact/thr_report.cfm?Thread_ID=74&topcategor...
.  Also, when you break a bone in your leg you should make sure you are
eating properly, taking extra calcium, and getting plenty of rest to
give your body the energy it needs for healing.  After you are allowed
to walk again, the more eight bearing exercises you can do the quicker
your bone density can recover.
I have sometimes wondered whether the people who make Fosomax will test
it on people with leg fractures, to see it if helps them heal faster or
improve their bone density and avoid additional fractures.
Cathie F.
Saskatoon SK Canada