Case Reports in Orthopedics
Volume 2014, Article ID 452418, 4 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/452418
Bilateral Atypical Femoral Fractures in a Patient with Multiple Myeloma Treated with Intravenous Bisphosphonate Therapy
Department of Orthopedics, Institute of Health Biosciences, The University of Tokushima Graduate School, 3-18-15 Kuramoto, Tokushima 770-8503, Japan
Received 16 May 2014; Accepted 16 July 2014; Published 22 July 2014
Academic Editor: Sungtaek Jung
Copyright © 2014 Ichiro Tonogai et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Bisphosphonates are currently the standard approach to managing bone disease in multiple myeloma. Bisphosphonates have high bone affinity that inhibits osteoclastic activity and additionally reduces the growth factors released from malignant or osteoblastic cells, thereby impairing abnormal bone remodeling which leads to osteolysis. However, patients of multiple myeloma may be at a higher risk of atypical femoral fractures because the treatment for malignant myeloma requires notably higher cumulative doses of bisphosphonates. Here we present a patient with bilateral atypical femoral fractures and multiple myeloma treated with intravenous bisphosphonate therapy.