• Colum Downey, Stephen Flannery, Ben Murphy, Tiarnan Daly, Sarah Conway, Mohammed Gaffar, Peter Dawson, Patrick O'Kelly, Denis Collins, Paddy Kenny, Tom McCarthy, James Cashman, Conor Shortt, Brendan O'Daly, Conor Hurson, and John Quinlan.
• Department of Trauma & Orthopaedics, Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. columdowney@rcsi.com.
• Ir J Med Sci. 2022 Apr 1; 191 (2): 759-764.

IntroductionFragility hip fractures are common and costly. Secondary fracture prevention is a treatment goal following hip fracture; however, the number of those that proceed to fracture their contralateral hip in Ireland is unknown. There are plans to introduce a Fracture Liaison Service Database in Ireland which will aim to prevent secondary fractures. To establish a baseline figure for secondary hip fractures, the injury radiographs of 1284 patients from 6 teaching hospitals over a 1-year period were reviewed.MethodsIrish Hip Fracture Datasheets and corresponding injury radiographs were reviewed locally for all hip fractures within each respective teaching hospital for a 1-year period (2019).ResultsA total of 8.7% of all fragility hip fractures across the 6 hospitals were secondary hip fractures (range 4.9-11.5%). 46% occurred within years 1 to 3 following index hip fracture. Forty-eight per cent of patients were started on bone protection medications following their second hip fracture.Discussion/ConclusionApproximately 1 in 11 hip fractures treated across the 6 teaching hospitals assessed in 2019 was a patient's second hip fracture. We advocate for the widespread availability of Fracture Liaison Services to patients throughout Ireland to assist secondary fracture prevention.© 2021. Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

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