Bilateral Simultaneous Femoral Fragility Fractures after Long-term Alendronate Therapy

Alendronate is the most popular bisphosphonate used to prevent osteoporotic fragility fractures in postmenopausal women. However, an increasing number of reports show a possible association between long-term treatment with biphosphanates and the occurrence of characteristic femoral fragility fractures. This study reported a case of a bilateral femoral insufficiency fracture in a woman receiving long-term alendronate therapy. The woman suffered from bilateral femoral pain while having physical therapy in the hospital and sustained a right displaced and left nondisplaced femoral shaft fracture. The characteristics and natural course of this bilateral fracture was analyzed and the importance of being aware of the possible correlation between long-term alendronate therapy and insufficiency femoral fractures was emphasized.