Background: Osteoporotic fractures are common, and their incidence are increasing worldwide. The first fracture doubles the risk of new fractures. Despite that, up to 80% of patients with a fragility fracture are evaluated or treated to reduce the risk of new fractures.
Aims: To evaluate the results of the operation of the hospital Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) and to analyze the clinical characteristics of the patients attending the service in its first 2 years of operation and to estimate the fracture risk reduction ratio.
Methods: The FLS managed patients older than 50 years who were admitted with a low-energy trauma fracture between January 2017 and April 2018. This management consists in a full medical evaluation, nutritional and physical activity guidance, and specific osteoporosis treatment, if needed.
Results: We monitored and treated 135 patients. Forty percent of them had a previous fracture and only 20.3% of them received treatment to prevent new fractures. On Kaplan-Meier analysis, the estimated incidence of new fractures over 24 months was 12.1% (95% CI 7.2-20.8%), indicating that the percentage of patients without new fractures due to bone fragility during treatment was estimated at 87.9% (95% CI 79.2-92.8%).
Conclusions: The evaluation and treatment of patients who sustained a fragility fracture to prevent a secondary fracture is effective in reducing the risk of new fractures in high-risk patients.
Keywords: Fracture Liaison Services; Osteoporosis; Osteoporotic fractures; Secondary fracture prevention.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.