Spinal injury patients in surgery 'have low vitamin D levels'RSS Feed

Many spinal injury patients who undergo spinal fusion surgery have low levels of vitamin D, according to scientists, which could potentially delay their recovery.

Orthopaedic surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis found that more than half of these individuals had inadequate levels of vitamin D.

Furthermore, one-quarter of patients were found to be severely deficient, according to the study which was presented at the 26th Annual Meeting of the North American Spine Society.

"Our findings suggest it may be worthwhile to screen surgery patients for vitamin D," says principle investigator Jacob M Buchowski.

"We think those with insufficient levels of vitamin D may benefit from taking 50,000 international units of the vitamin once a week for eight weeks before surgery as this may help the recovery after spinal fusion surgery."

This follows research at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine which found that undergoing spinal fusion surgery could leave patients worse off in the long term.

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Posted by Paul Breen
 

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