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Pathophysiology of Bone Fragility

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Principles of Bone and Joint Research

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Abstract

Fragility fractures are defined as fractures that occur as a result of a minimal trauma, such as a fall from standing height or less, or in the absence of an obvious trauma. When getting older, the probability to sustain a fragility fracture increases. This age-related increase is even more pronounced in women due to the sudden drop in sex steroid secretion during menopausal transition. In the first part of this chapter, you will learn how different bone-related properties including bone mass, bone microarchitecture and macroarchitecture, bone material properties, and bone metabolism contribute to bone fragility. The most prominent and most frequent disease associated with bone fragility is osteoporosis. However, also patients with various other diseases including Paget’s disease, primary hyperparathyroidism, rickets, osteomalacia, and chronic kidney disease-mineral bone disorder (CKD-MBD) do have an increased risk to sustain fragility fractures. In the second and third part of this chapter, you will learn about the pathophysiological mechanisms leading to bone fragility in these diseases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical University of Vienna, Wien, Austria

    Katharina Kerschan-Schindl

  2. Department of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research, Center of Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090, Wien, Austria

    Ursula Föger-Samwald & Peter Pietschmann

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  1. Katharina Kerschan-Schindl
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  3. Peter Pietschmann
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Correspondence to Peter Pietschmann .

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  1. Department of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Peter Pietschmann

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Kerschan-Schindl, K., Föger-Samwald, U., Pietschmann, P. (2017). Pathophysiology of Bone Fragility. In: Pietschmann, P. (eds) Principles of Bone and Joint Research. Learning Materials in Biosciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58955-8_6

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