The use of bisphosphonates is associated with an increased risk of atypical hip fractures

http://ekaweb01.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/ef-tuo092215.php

Public Release: 22-Sep-2015
The use of bisphosphonates is associated with an increased risk of atypical hip fractures
Elhuyar Fundazioa

The use of bisphosphonates, a group of drugs used to prevent hip breakages in women with osteoporosis, is associated with an increased risk of atypical fractures in this joint. It has been established thus in the Ph.D. thesis by Javier Gorricho, a graduate in pharmacy, read at the Public University of Navarre. The author advocates encouraging other preventive measures such as 'strategies to reduce falls and an active lifestyle to improve bone density and health.'

"Hip fracture is the most common cause of admittance to hospital in the traumatology and orthopaedics departments," points out Javier Gorricho. "These fractures are associated with a high rate of mortality and loss of quality of life together with significant costs. It is estimated that in the European Union in 2010, there were 620,000 hip fractures and the cost of osteoporotic fractures amounted to over 37,000 million euros."

Most fractures occur in people over 65 and are more frequent in women.

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To prevent hip fractures in women who have osteoporosis and who have a high risk, one of the main drugs used are the oral bisphosphonates class of drugs (alendronate, risedronate and ibandronate). "These drugs have been consistently found to increase the levels of bone mineral density, and reduce vertebral fractures detected in X-rays. When trials using a placebo were carried out, in those among whom a proportion of the target sample in the study did not take any medication, the reduction in the number of hip fractures was much smaller", said Javier Gorricho, whose thesis supervisor was Juan Erviti-López, researcher at Navarrabiomed-Fundación Miguel Servet.

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this study, which has found for the first time the same correlation between atypical hip fractures and the use of bisphosphonates in our population as that found in other countries (the United States and northern Europe),

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