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Physical Activity for Strengthening Fracture Prone Regions of the Proximal Femur

  • Biomechanics (M Silva and K Jepsen, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Osteoporosis Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

Physical activity improves proximal femoral bone health; however, it remains unclear whether changes translate into a reduction in fracture risk. To enhance any fracture-protective effects of physical activity, fracture prone regions within the proximal femur need to be targeted.

Recent Findings

The proximal femur is designed to withstand forces in the weight-bearing direction, but less so forces associated with falls in a sideways direction. Sideways falls heighten femoral neck fracture risk by loading the relatively weak superolateral region of femoral neck. Recent studies exploring regional adaptation of the femoral neck to physical activity have identified heterogeneous adaptation, with adaptation principally occurring within inferomedial weight-bearing regions and little to no adaptation occurring in the superolateral femoral neck.

Summary

There is a need to develop novel physical activities that better target and strengthen the superolateral femoral neck within the proximal femur. Design of these activities may be guided by subject-specific musculoskeletal modeling and finite-element modeling approaches.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Therapy and Center for Translational Musculoskeletal Research, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Indiana University, 1140 W. Michigan St, Indianapolis, IN, CF-120, USA

    Robyn K. Fuchs, William R. Thompson & Stuart J. Warden

  2. Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA

    Mariana E. Kersh

  3. Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Julio Carballido-Gamio

  4. Departments of Radiological Sciences, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Joyce H. Keyak

Authors
  1. Robyn K. Fuchs
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  2. Mariana E. Kersh
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  3. Julio Carballido-Gamio
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  4. William R. Thompson
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  5. Joyce H. Keyak
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  6. Stuart J. Warden
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stuart J. Warden.

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R.K., W.T., J.C.-G., M.K., and S.W. declare no conflict of interest. J.K. declares a patent issued (#9245069).

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Biomechanics

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Fuchs, R.K., Kersh, M.E., Carballido-Gamio, J. et al. Physical Activity for Strengthening Fracture Prone Regions of the Proximal Femur. Curr Osteoporos Rep 15, 43–52 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11914-017-0343-6

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