Talk about a kick-ass ‘n’. n= 97,142. If you can’t learn something from 97,142 VCF patients, then all is lost. Thanks to Edmund Lau, M.S., Kevin Ong, Ph.D., Steven Kurtz, Ph.D., Jordana Schmier, M.A., and Av Edidin, Ph.D.—all from Exponent, Inc., we have solid information about the continuum of care for elderly patients with vertebral compression fractures (VCF).
Incidentally and not surprisingly, Kyphon contributed a bit more than $10,000 to sponsor the research. The researchers from Exponent conducted a retrospective data analysis of 97,142 Medicare patients with vertebral compression fractures from 1997 through 2004. Controls were matched for age, sex, race, and Medicare buy-in status, with a five-to-one control-case ratio.
The survival of a patient was measured from the earliest date of a new fracture until death or until the end of the study. The patients with a fracture were compared with the controls by calculation of the mortality rates, with use of Kaplan-Meier analysis and the Cox regression method. Demographic subpopulation analysis and analysis by comorbidity levels were performed as well.
What did the researchers find? They learned that Medicare patients with a vertebral fracture had twice the mortality rate of the matched controls. Only 10.5% of the VCF patients survived seven years after fracture. Furthermore, the mortality risk following a fracture was greater for men than for women.
The study was published in JBJS and is available in CD form and, I’m sure, can be obtained from Kyphon (Medtronic) or from Exponent, Inc.
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