Osteoporosis Impact In 84-Year-Old Female

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An 84-year-old, frail, elderly woman with psychological issues was hospitalized for hypotension that triggered because of her medications. She was put in rehabilitation for almost a month, moreover, was later hospitalized for congestive heart failure.

  • 84 year old white female with osteoporosis, lumbar compression fractures, chronic pain
  • Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA)/Polymayalgia rheumatica (PMR) treated with steroids since 2001
  • Depression since death of spouse 2001
  • Colo-vesicular fistula since 10/02
  • DM, HTN
  • CHF, COPD
  • PAF, hypothyroidism

Over the next few months, the patient was hospitalized repeatedly. She experienced functional decline and a decrease in her overall sense of satisfaction with life. She also complained of an increase in lower back pain which was managed by short-acting morphine. The occasional exacerbations in CHF were managed with diuretics, at home. Although she was able to stay out of the hospital for a few months, she had poor functional status and compromised quality of life because of her medical issues.

The patient also suffered from trauma caused by abruptly sitting down on the commode. This caused excruciating pain in her lower back the next day. She was hospitalised for pain control. However, no new fractures were found. Her functional status worsened because of the pain.

Here physical status continued to worsen and she was considered for a minimally invasive spinal surgery (vertebroplasty). While the procedure showed improvements in pain, there were no functional benefits.

After weeks of unsuccessful attempts at physical rehabilitation, she was discharged to a nursing home where she continued to deal with physical problems.

References

Osteoporosis Impact in an Older Adult Patient https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/gec/studies/osteoporosis.html

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Dr. Aiman Shahab is a dentist with a bachelor’s degree from Dow University of Health Sciences. She is an experienced freelance writer with a demonstrated history of working in the health industry. Skilled in general dentistry, she is currently working as an associate dentist at a private dental clinic in Karachi, freelance content writer and as a part time science instructor with Little Medical School. She has also been an ambassador for PDC in the past from the year 2016 – 2018, and her responsibilities included acting as a representative and volunteer for PDC with an intention to make the dental community of Pakistan more connected and to work for benefiting the underprivileged. When she’s not working, you’ll either find her reading or aimlessly walking around for the sake of exploring. Her future plans include getting a master’s degree in maxillofacial and oral surgery, settled in a metropolitan city of North America.

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