Vertebral bone loss: an unheeded side effect of therapeutic bed rest

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Krølner, Bjørn¹; Toft, Birte¹

Vertebral bone loss: an unheeded side effect of therapeutic bed rest

Clin Sci (London). 1983;64(5):537-540

©1983 The Biochemical Society and the Medical Research Society

Affiliations

¹Department of Medicine F, Department of Rheumatology. and Department of Clinical Physiology, Frederiksborg County Hospital, Hillerød, Denmark
Abstract and keywords
1. The skeletal effects of simple bed rest and re-ambulation were studied in a consecutive series of 34 patients (aged 18–60 years) hospitalized with low backache due to protrusion of a lumbar intervertebral disc. The bone mineral content of the second, third and fourth lumbar vertebrae was determined by dual-photon (153Gd) absorptiometry immediately after admission to the hospital, at the end of the bed-rest period (mean 27 days, range 11–61 days) and approximately 15 weeks later (range 11–24 weeks).
2. During recumbency a mean decrease in lumbar spine bone mineral content of 0.9% per week was observed.
3. Re-ambulation resulted in bone mineral gain, and restoration of lumbar spine bone mineral content was nearly complete after 4 months.
4. The findings suggest that the simple therapeutic bed-rest regimen leads to excessive vertebral bone loss. Recurrent bed-rest periods may predispose to spinal osteoporosis.
Keywords: bone mineral content; immobilization; osteoporosis; spine
Links

DOI: 10.1042/cs0640537

PubMed: A1983QJ37100012

WoS: 6831837

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2020	Sørensen TG, Brent MB, Thomsen JS, Brüel A. Disuse-induced loss of bone mineral density and bone strength is attenuated by post-lactational bone gain in NMRI mice. Bone. January 2020;130:115183.
1990	Kimmel DB, Recker RR, Gallagher JC, Vaswani AS, Aloia JF. A comparison of iliac bone histomorphometric data in post-menopausal osteoporotic and normal subjects. Bone Miner. November 1990;11(2):217-235.
1984	Lanyon LE. Functional strain as a determinant for bone remodeling. Calcif Tiss Int. March 1984;36(suppl 1):S56-S61.
1985	Rubin CT, Lanyon LE. Regulation of bone mass by mechanical strain magnitude. Calcif Tiss Int. 1985;37(4):411-417.
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1993	Dallas SL, Zaman G, Pead MJ, Lanyon LE. Early strain-related changes in cultured embryonic chick tibiotarsi parallel those associated with adaptive modeling in vivo. J Bone Miner Res. March 1993;8(3):251-259.
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