Department of Rheumatology, Institute of Rheumatology and Orthopaedics, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, Sydney, NSW, Australia,
Osteoporos Int. 2013 Oct;24(10):2619-25. doi: 10.1007/s00198-013-2357-y. Epub 2013 Apr 19.
Our fracture liaison service identifies patients with low trauma fractures, determines the need for osteoporosis therapy and instigates therapy if necessary. We describe the tracking and outcome of 768 patients attending our emergency department over 1 year and discuss the problems we encountered and potential solutions.
Osteoporotic fractures result in substantial morbidity, mortality and economic cost, and patients sustaining a first fracture are known to be at higher risk of sustaining future fracture. Treatment of at-risk patients has been shown to assist in prevention of future fracture including hip fracture. We established a "First Fracture Project" to identify and treat these patients in 2003.
We assessed "A Year of Fractures": the logistics, outcome and problems in tracking patients presenting to our emergency department with a low trauma fracture by our fracture liaison service, over 1 year from July 2008 to June 2009. Patients were tracked by our osteoporosis nurse and offered assessment, and treatment where necessary.
In 1 year, 768 patients aged 50 or over were identified from emergency department records as attending with a low trauma fracture. About 84 % of patients eventually received assessment. Of the162 patients progressing through the entire process, 74 % had osteoporosis treatment planned and/or commenced.
Our fracture liaison service was effective at identifying most low trauma fracture patients at risk of further fracture and providing access to osteoporosis assessment. There were many difficulties: we outline logistic and practical issues in delivering our service and suggest potential improvements.
我们的骨折联络服务旨在识别患有低创伤性骨折的患者，确定是否需要骨质疏松症治疗，并在必要时启动治疗。我们描述了在过去一年中，有 768 名患者在我们的急诊部门就诊的跟踪和结果，并讨论了我们遇到的问题和潜在的解决方案。
骨质疏松性骨折会导致严重的发病率、死亡率和经济成本，而且首次骨折的患者已知存在更高的再次骨折风险。对高危患者的治疗已被证明有助于预防未来的骨折，包括髋部骨折。我们于 2003 年成立了“首次骨折项目”，以识别和治疗这些患者。
我们评估了“骨折年”：在过去一年中（2008 年 7 月至 2009 年 6 月），通过我们的骨折联络服务，对在我们的急诊部门因低创伤性骨折就诊的患者进行了跟踪，评估了物流、结果和跟踪患者的问题。患者由我们的骨质疏松症护士进行评估，并在必要时提供治疗。
在一年中，从急诊部门的记录中确定了 768 名年龄在 50 岁以上的患有低创伤性骨折的患者。大约 84%的患者最终接受了评估。在整个过程中进展的 162 名患者中，74%的患者计划进行骨质疏松症治疗和/或开始治疗。
我们的骨折联络服务有效地识别了大多数有进一步骨折风险的低创伤性骨折患者，并为他们提供了接受骨质疏松症评估的机会。但是存在许多困难：我们概述了提供服务的物流和实际问题，并提出了潜在的改进措施。
