Fractured Hip

The New England Journal of Medicine, http://www.nejm.org released a study funded by Novartis about a drug called Reclast. The drug is used to treat osteoporosis.

Up until this time elderly patients lived in fear of falling and sustaining a hip fracture which ultimately resulted in death. The new drug is one that can be given once a year by infusion. This method of administration has as a benefit for convenience of not having to remember to take the medication. A once a year treatment is all that is required.

There are approximately 300,000 hip fractures each year. The fear of breaking one's hip in the elderly is real since approximately one person in five dies within one year of fracturing their hip statistically.

Previously patients were treated with Fosamax or other bisphosphonates. This class of drugs had to be taken on an empty stomach in the morning and eating was a delayed event. The drug was also associated with various side effects and other symptoms. Of course it had to be taken more than once a year.

The drug, Reclast was shown to reduce the incidence of new fractures and to reduce the number of deaths in patient's with broken hips. The standard of medical care has been altered . If there was any doubt about this class of drugs it is now resolved. Physicians must now treat broken hips with the drug Reclast. Failure to do so may result in the patient paying the ultimate price.

The management of a broken hip or osteoporosis has long been the basis of professional liability. The failure to properly manage these conditions is always a source of potential liability. That area of liability has now been expanded to include the use of Reclast.

If you or a loved one has medical malpractice questions in New York, please contact the Malpractice Law Offices of Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, serving clients in Nassau and Suffolk Counties and Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens,. Staten Island and Westchester County

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