Aging Schwarzenegger Should Enjoy Full Recovery

Dec. 26, 2006 — -- Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former action movie star and current California governor, will likely recover fully from the broken leg he suffered in a skiing accident on Dec. 23.

This, coupled with the fact that the 59-year-old Schwarzenegger's broken femur was likely a result of high speeds rather than weak bones, should be encouraging news for aging baby boomers who engage in exhilarating sports.

"The message that is really out there now is that, as a society, I think we are coming to view the aging years very differently than we did before," says Dr. Regis O'Keefe, director of the musculoskeletal research center at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. "We have a desire in the population to maintain high levels of function."

And continuing medical advances should help support this desire, he says.

"I think that Gov. Schwarzenegger, in maintaining his activity, is a model of what people today can expect as they get older, and I think that the medical and scientific community can deliver on that expectation."

Schwarzenegger underwent surgery on Tuesday morning to repair his right femur. The surgery, known as an open reduction internal fixation, lasted an hour and a half. At 10:45 a.m., Schwarzenegger's surgeons cleared him to resume his daily activities as governor.

"Recovery will take approximately eight weeks, and I expect the governor to fully recover," said Schwarzenegger's orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Kevin Ehrhart, in a statement released after the surgery. "The governor is not in a cast and will use crutches to walk while his leg heals."

Contrary to the idea that frailty necessarily accompanies aging, older sports aficionados may still engage in demanding and potentially dangerous pastimes -- as long as they have kept themselves in pretty good shape.

"Fifty-nine is not old, but it's not 25," says Dr. John Messmer, associate professor at the Penn State College of Medicine in Palmyra, Pa. "However, a man who has been exercising regularly and generally is in good health should recover without issues.

"Skiing is an intrinsically dangerous sport," Messmer adds, "and such an injury as this could happen to anyone at any age."