Atypical Femoral Fracture: Failure to Prevent the Forthcoming

Abstract

Although biphosphonates showed robust efficacy in fracture prevention, recent data revealed a number of adverse events. Atypical femoral fracture is one of them. Here, a 73 year old female patient who continued alendronate therapy despite unilateral atypical femoral fracture and developed the second one on the other side one year later is presented. The purposes of this manuscript are; emphasizing atypical femoral fracture as an adverse event with increasing incidence, reviewing the knowledge about duration of biphosphonate therapy and drug holiday and highlighting that biphosphonates should be stopped in the presence of an atypical femoral fracture and this should be explained to the patient in a clear way especially if he/she is elderly.