For Immediate Release
Contact: Derek Berry
Media Relations Manager
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To schedule a DEXA scan, please call 202-877-1570. |
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Washington, DC – March 1, 2010 – A newly released research paper published by the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation shows that commonly used medications taken by osteoporosis patients are causing sudden leg fractures and breaks.
More and more, doctors are seeing these types of startling fractures, particularly in female osteoporosis patients and the reasons are puzzling and also quite frightening, according to Dr. Robert Bunning, Associate Medical Director, National Rehabilitation Hospital, and co-author of the research paper.
Read the full paper
In many cases, patients are doing nothing and their femurs snap like twigs. One woman, age 60, a former patient at National Rehabilitation Hospital who was seen by Dr. Bunning, was standing at a bus stop in the Washington, D.C. area waiting for a bus to take her to work when she suddenly suffered a broken femur. The woman, from Greenbelt, Maryland, says she didn’t trip over anything or even move. She was just standing there.
Dr. Bunning says in this case and many others, patients are taking a class of drugs commonly prescribed to osteoporosis patients, called bisphosphonates. One of those medications is called Fosamax, a commonly prescribed osteoporosis medication. Dr. Bunning’s research among some 50-60 patients shows that those taking the medications for more than five years have a much higher risk of suffering these breaks and fractures.
“Typically, osteoporosis patients can suffer sudden fractures and breaks in their thigh bones but usually after falls,” says Dr. Bunning. “But these cases are different. These drugs like Fosamax are designed to make the bones stronger and I think they do that for the first few years. But patients should talk to their doctors about the potential risks, of which they may not be fully aware.”
Dr. Bunning sees patients in the NRH Outpatient Physician Center on Tuesday afternoons and Friday mornings. To schedule an appointment with him, please call 202-877-1660 or 202-877-1621. The DEXA scan is located in the Outpatient Center Radiology Department. To schedule a DEXA scan, please call 202-877-1570. Please have a doctor's order and your insurance information available prior to making an appointment.
National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) is a private, not-for-profit facility located in Northwest Washington, D.C. NRH’s services are designed specifically for the rehabilitation of individuals with disabling injuries and illnesses such as stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury and disease, arthritis, amputations, post-polio syndrome, chronic pain, back and neck pain, occupational injuries, cancer and cardiac disease that require medical rehabilitation, and other neurological and orthopedic conditions. NRH admits approximately 2,200 inpatients annually, has appeared on the “Best Hospitals” list in U.S. News & World Report for 15 consecutive years and is currently ranked among the top hospitals in medical rehabilitation in America. NRH has the only CARF accredited specialty program for both Spinal Cord Injury and Stroke in the region. In addition, NRH’s Spinal Cord Injury Program has been designated one of only 14 Model SCI Systems of care in the country by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), a part of the Department of Education. NRH is a proud member of MedStar Health.