Treatment
At present there is no cure for OI. Treatment is aimed at increasing overall bone strength to prevent fracture and maintain mobility.
There have been many clinical trials performed with Fosamax (Alendronate), a drug used to treat those experiencing brittleness of bones due to osteoporosis. Higher levels of effectiveness apparently are to be seen in the pill form versus the IV form, but results seem inconclusive. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will not approve Fosamax as a treatment for OI because long term effects of the drug have not been fully researched yet, although it is often used in preteens, instead of Pamidronate.
Although there is no known cure for OI, regular weight-bearing exercise, a diet rich in calcium and vitamin D, a healthy lifestyle, and, in some cases, vitamin supplements will help off-set early development of osteoporosis, prevent future fractures, and delay other health concerns related to OI.
Bone infections are treated as and when they occur with the appropriate antibiotics and antiseptics.
Read more about this topic: Brittle Bones
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.””
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“Our treatment of both older people and children reflects the value we place on independence and autonomy. We do our best to make our children independent from birth. We leave them all alone in rooms with the lights out and tell them, “Go to sleep by yourselves.” And the old people we respect most are the ones who will fight for their independence, who would sooner starve to death than ask for help.”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)
“Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)