Early benefits of a secondary fracture prevention programme

INTRODUCTION: The most successful programme for secondary fracture prevention is the FLS (fracture liaison service) model. Our orthopaedic department carried out a prospective randomised study to measure the effectiveness of a 4-step intervention programme. The findings in this study reveal important additional clinical benefits to having an orthopaedic-based FLS programme and evaluates the usefulness of fracture risk tools. METHODS: We carried out a prospective study to evaluate patients with a fragility fracture of the hip. There were 2 groups, intervention and control (each 100 patients). Of these, 20 were either removed from the study or dropped out, leaving 180 for analysis. In addition to routine preoperative blood tests, albumin and thyroid function levels were obtained and PTH (parathyroid hormone) levels when indicated. The intervention group (83 patients) had a dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan performed and fracture risk (FRAX) was calculated. RESULTS: 12 patients (6.7%) had blood results which showed a potentially treatable cause for osteoporosis and 36 (20%) had blood results that changed their medical care. FRAX scores (180 patients) showed that the major osteoporotic fracture score correctly predicted the hip fracture in only 49%. The hip fracture score correctly predicted the hip fracture in 83%. DEXA scores (65 patients) showed osteoporosis in only 46% of hips and in only 26% of spines. An abnormal FRAX score or DEXA scan would have predicted a fragility fracture 93% of the time. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to reducing secondary fractures, FLS programmes can provide fundamental benefits to the health of the patient. The intervention programme in this study identified patients with underlying treatable causes, correctable clinical conditions and patients with an unusually low bone density. When used together, FRAX and DEXA are more sensitive predictors for hip fracture risk than either are individually. TRIAL REGISTRY: 201497CTIL (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02239523)