AAP: Low Vitamin D Linked to Slower Fracture Healing in Pediatric Patients

TUESDAY, Oct. 1, 2024 (HealthDay News) — For pediatric patients with lower-extremity fracture and surgical management, low vitamin D is associated with slower clinical and radiographic healing, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, held from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1 in Orlando, Florida.

Catalina Baez, M.D., from the University of Florida Health in Gainesville, and colleagues conducted a retrospective review of pediatric patients (aged 0 to 17 years) with extremity fractures and vitamin D level recorded within a year of injury. Data were included for 187 fractures in 166 patients.

Overall, 61.4 percent of the sample had low vitamin D levels. The researchers found that compared with patients with normal vitamin D levels, those with low vitamin D levels had significantly longer clinical (44.0 versus 37.0 days) and radiographic (74.0 versus 39.0 days) healing times. Compared with patients with normal vitamin D levels, lower-extremity fractures in patients with low vitamin D healed slower clinically (53.0 versus 33.0 days) and radiographically (95.0 versus 39.0 days). Similar findings were seen in surgical patients with low vitamin D levels compared with their counterparts with normal vitamin D levels, with slower clinical (83.0 versus 50.0 days) and radiographical (203.0 versus 88.0 days) healing. Compared with patients with normal vitamin D levels, lack of supplementation among patients with low vitamin D levels was associated with longer radiographic healing times (69.0 versus 38.0 days).

“Previous studies have focused more on how vitamin D can help prevent fractures but now we are seeing a link between low vitamin D levels and longer fracture healing times,” senior author Jessica McQuerry, M.D., also from the University of Florida, said in a statement.

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