FRAX®: a fracture risk-assessment tool

Abstract

There is a need to identify patients with osteopenia who are at high risk of sustaining fractures and who would benefit from treatment, since many patients with osteopenia do not sustain fractures. In 2008, the WHO unveiled the fracture risk-assessment tool (FRAX®), which calculates the 10-year probability of a patient sustaining a fracture. It is available on the internet free of charge, and represents a major step forward since it takes into account a number of risk factors and allows clinicians to focus on those patients at high risk of sustaining fractures, in whom the benefits of treating a silent disease outweigh the potential adverse effects and cost. In the USA, the National Osteoporosis Foundation has suggested a fracture threshold to recommend treatment. In this article, the various risk factors included in the FRAX tool are briefly reviewed, and the advantages, potential limitations and possible future developments are discussed.