The second hip fracture in osteoporotic patients: not only an orthopaedic matter.

The second hip fracture indicates the fracture of the osteoporotic femoral neck which occurs in patients already operated on the opposite side. It is a growing problem, especially in Italy where the ageing rate of the population is one of the highest in the world. Only in recent years this issue has been discussed in the international literature about timing and the treatment methods as a consequence linked to the social costs, mortality, disability of this pathology. The aim of our study is the evaluation of the incidence of hip fractures in a sample of patients that already substained a surgical procedure for a proximal femour fracture. The evaluation was based on the time elapsed between the two fractures, the quality of life after the second fractural episode through a telephone questionnaire (EQ-5D), the incidence of mortality, the adhesion to the antifractural therapy and the comparison of the obtained data to the international standards.