To date there are 550 femur fractures treated by the Orthopaedics-Traumatology department of the Piacenza hospital. Fifteen years ago there were 280. The disease is on the increase: confirmation also comes from the episode of “Feel good” conducted by the journalist Marzia Foletti and broadcast on Telelibertà.
the work of the orthopedic-traumatology department
“Fracture of the neck of the femur represents 50 percent of the activity we carry out in our department – he confirms Pietro Maniscalcodirector of Orthopaedics-Traumatology – it is a rapidly increasing pathology that takes up a lot of space in our departments”.
“The patients who come to us were often independent: there is a need for multidisciplinary management” he underlines Alessia Medioligeriatrician and deputy head of the Sant’Antonino nursing home.
key figure physiotherapist
A commitment that has among its key figures that of the physiotherapist: “The aim of the physiotherapist is to start an activity to start walking – he explains Luca Rosanicoordinator of physiotherapy at the Piacenza nursing home – in the two days following the operation, passive mobilization takes place, then work is done to recover and maintain muscle strength, balance and motor coordination”.
the main causes of the fracture
But what are the causes of the fracture? The answer is provided by Sara Barbieri who is director of the hospital’s new Orthogeriatrics operating unit: “Femur fractures are caused by falls that occur mainly at home in people suffering from a serious form of osteoporosis – he points out – they are often trivial falls, but there are also falls caused by temporary losses of consciousness as well as by the worsening of the quality of walking or by the side effects of some drugs. The objective of the geriatric approach path of our operational unit is to prevent complications that may occur during the path”.
“We are a country of elderly people – concludes the oncologist Luigi Cavanna – and as age increases, the fragility of people in general increases, as does bone fragility”.
