Hip Fracture - Risk Factors

Risk Factors

Hip fracture following a fall is likely to be a pathological fracture. The most common causes of weakness in bone are:

• Osteoporosis.
• Homocysteine, a toxic 'natural' amino acid linked to the cause of heart disease,
• Other metabolic bone diseases such as Paget's disease, osteomalacia, osteopetrosis and osteogenesis imperfecta. Stress fractures may occur in the hip region with metabolic bone disease.
• Benign or malignant primary bone tumours are rare causes of hip fractures.
• Metastatic cancer deposits in the proximal femur may weaken the bone and cause a pathological hip fracture.
• Infection in the bone is a rare cause of hip fracture.