As the population in the United States ages and the average life expectancy increases, a growing number of patients live with osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is brittleness of the bone that occurs with age due to loss of the calcium structure.
Dr. Knauer has been a practicing orthopedic surgeon in Fort Collins for over 30 years. During that time she has operated on hundreds of patients with hip fractures as well as wrist and shoulder fractures. Many of those fractures are “fragility fractures” and would not have occurred if the bone structure had been of normal strength. Dr. Knauer has seen firsthand in surgery just how frail our bone can become due to osteoporosis. Painful spine compression fractures also occur as a result of osteoporosis. Most importantly these osteoporosis related fractures can impact a person’s quality of life and rob them of their independence.
Osteoporosis is not an inevitable fact of aging. It is preventable and treatable. Dr. Knauer has always been passionate about the overall health and wellbeing of her patients and is dedicated to helping her patients avoid osteoporosis and fractures. As an orthopedist she is uniquely qualified to be an expert community resource for the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis.
The National Osteoporosis Foundation, www.NOF.org , has good information on osteoporosis, as does the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons at orthoinfo.org