Secondary Prevention of Hip Fragility Fractures During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Service Evaluation of “MRS BAD BONES”

BACKGROUND: Management of osteoporosis is an important consideration for patients with femoral neck fractures due to the morbidity and mortality it poses. The input of orthogeriatric teams is invaluable in coordinating secondary fragility fracture prevention. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the rapid restructuring of health care teams and led to the redeployment of orthogeriatricians. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the impact COVID-19 had on the secondary prevention of fragility fractures among patients with femoral neck fractures, and to optimize management in this population. METHODS: A retrospective audit was conducted of patients with femoral neck fractures before and after the lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. A reaudit was conducted following the development of our new mnemonic, “MRS BAD BONES,” which addressed key factors in the assessment and management of osteoporosis: medication review, rheumatology/renal advice, smoking cessation; blood tests, alcohol limits, DEXA (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry) scan; bone-sparing medications, orthogeriatric review, nutrition, exercise, supplements. The Fisher exact test was used for comparison analyses between each phase. RESULTS: Data for 50 patients were available in each phase. The orthogeriatric team reviewed 88% (n=44) of patients prelockdown, which fell to 0% due to redeployment, before recovering to 38% (n=19) in the postintervention period. The lockdown brought a significant drop in the prescription of vitamin D/calcium supplements from 81.6% (n=40) to 58.0% (n=29) (P=.02); of bone-sparing medications from 60.7% (n=17) to 18.2% (n=4) (P=.004), and DEXA scan requests from 40.1% (n=9) to 3.6% (n=1) (P=.003). Following the implementation of our mnemonic, there was a significant increase in the prescription of vitamin D/calcium supplements to 85.7% (n=42) (P=.003), bone-sparing medications to 72.4% (n=21) (P<.001), and DEXA scan requests to 60% (n=12) (P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: The redeployment of the orthogeriatric team, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, impacted the secondary prevention of fragility fractures in the study population. The “MRS BAD BONES” mnemonic significantly improved management and could be used in a wider setting.