title: Vitamin D deficiency in orthopaedic patients: a single center analysis.
abstract: Vitamin D is essential to bone health and is a major regulator of calcium homeostasis. Many recent reports demonstrated worldwide high rates of vitamin D deficiency, but few studies have been published on the vitamin D status of orthopaedic patients. The present study aimed to investigate the extent of hypovitaminosis D of orthopaedic patients and possible variations in vitamin D status according to the body region which was scheduled to undergo surgery. We measured the vitamin D level of 1119 patients consecutively admitted to an orthopaedic surgery department of a university hospital in Germany in 2011. The prevalence of normal (< or =30 ng/ml), insufficient (20-30 ng/ml) and deficient (< or =20 ng/ml) 25-OH-D levels was determined. Serum Vitamin D levels and rates of insufficiency and deficiency were compared between the different cohorts using two-tailed tests. The level of significance was set at p < or =0.05. The serum 25-OH-D levels for all participants were normally distributed, with a mean of 2057 ng/ml. Overall, we noted an alarmingly high rate of vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency among orthopaedic patients. No significant difference was found related with the various body regions scheduled to undergo surgery. Given the well-known effects of vitamin D on bone metabolism and muscle health, vitamin D insufficiency may negatively affect patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Trauma Surgery, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany. gerrit.s.maier@gmx.de
authors.forename: Gerrit Steffen
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Maier
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Johannes-Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jakob
authors.affiliation: ANZAC Research Institute, University of Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Konstantin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Horas
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Johannes-Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus Edgar
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Roth
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Johannes-Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas Alois
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Kurth
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Pius-Hospital, Oldenburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Maus
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001847:Bone Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery; D002648:Child; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D019637:Orthopedic Procedures; D012307:Risk Factors; D014808:Vitamin D Deficiency / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult