Reclast Improves Survival Following Hip Repair

A new study suggests that an annual infusion of zoledronic acid (Reclast), an osteoporosis drug, improved survival and reduced the risk of further clinical fractures in elderly patients who had undergone broken hip repair.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC, USA) conducted a multi-center, randomized, double blind placebo-controlled trial involving 2,127 patients (mean age 74.5 years and median follow up period 1.9 years) with recent hip fracture. Almost half (1,065) of the patients were randomly assigned to receive yearly infusions of 5 mg Reclast (a product of Novartis (Basel, Switzerland). The other 1,062 patients received a placebo. The infusions lasted 15 minutes. Participants were given the dose within 90 days of having an operation to repair a hip fracture. All participants were also given Vitamin D and calcium.

Study findings showed that a total of 424 new fractures occurred in 231 patients during the follow up; rates of new clinical fracture were 8.6% in the Reclast group and 13.9% in the placebo group, a reduction of the risk of new clinical fracture by 35% compared to placebo. In the Reclast group, 9.6% of the patients died during the study, as did 13.3% in the placebo group, a reduction in death rate in the Reclast group by 28% from any cause. In the Reclast group the most frequently observed adverse events were pyrexia (fever), myalgia (muscle pain), and bone and musculoskeletal pain. The study was published on September 17, 2007, in the online version of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

"An annual infusion of zoledronic acid within 90 days after repair of a low-trauma hip fracture was associated with a reduction in the rate of new clinical fractures and improved survival,” concluded lead author Dr. Kenneth Lyles.

In the United States alone, there are more than 300,000 hip fractures a year, mostly in frail elderly people, often leading to a gradual decline in quality of life, with 20% dying within a year of the fracture.


Related Links:
Duke University Medical Center
Novartis