This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Researchers link long-term bisphosphonate use to atypical hip fractures
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
A recently published study conducted by researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto found that women who take bisphosphonates for 5 years or more may have a higher risk of certain femur fractures, according to a St. Michael’s Hospital press release.
However, investigators noted that women at high risk of hip and other osteoporotic fractures should not stop taking bisphosphonates since the overall risk of femur fractures due to the drugs is low.
“Prolonged use of bisphosphonates is associated with rare and unusual fractures of the femur,” lead researcher Laura Y. Park-Wyllie, PharmD, MSc, stated in the release. “But, the proven benefit of these drugs for the much more common fractures of osteoporosis usually outweighs the harm, especially in the initial years of treatment for osteoporosis.”
The study, which appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that less common fractures distal to the hip and closer to the mid-femur — known as atypical or unusual fractures — occurred more than 2.5 times as often in women who had taken bisphosphonates for more than 5 years compared with short-term users of the drugs.
The St. Michaels/Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences study, which is the largest to date on this issue, identified more than 205,000 women more than 68 years old who were prescribed bisphosphonates between 2002 and 2008. The study found that 716 women or 0.35% had a femur fracture. The group was compared with women of similar ages who had also been prescribed these drugs but did not have femur fractures, according to the release.
“Our study estimated that the risk of fractures to the femur was 0.13% for women entering their sixth year on the drug — or just over one in 1,000,” Park-Wylie stated in the release. “Use of bisphosphonates for less than 5 years was not associated with a significant risk of thigh fractures.”
Reference:
- Park-Wyllie LY, et al. JAMA. 2011;305(8):783-789. doi:10.1001/jama.2011.190
Disclosure: Park-Wyllie has no relevant financial disclosures.
