[Disabling senile osteoporosis].

Fractures of the proximal femur are the most dangerous complications of type-II-osteoporosis with a high rate of disability and mortality. In contrast to type-I-osteoporosis, men are affected rather frequently (ratio 1:3). We report on a 79-year old man who was completely in need of care after bilateral fractures of the humerus after having survived a previous pertrochanteric fracture of the left femur. Diagnostic procedures revealed that in this case an intestinal malabsorption has to be taken into consideration as a pathogenetic factor of this severe osteopathy. Bone biopsy confirmed a combination of osteoporosis and osteomalacia. Partial gastrectomy, which had been performed 10 years before, was obviously the reason for malabsorption having caused furthermore pernicious anemia, severe malnutrition and exsiccosis.