Cataract operation and Alendronic acid

[Gab-Gordon]

Hi is like many of you, I'm sure I'm due to start taking alendronic acid but need a cataract I

operation - is it possible. I'm very worried in case the operation won't be possible. there's a long waiting list where I live and I can't afford to go private to get it done

[Gillymar]

Hi gabgordon, my advise would be avoid AA like the plague ! After 2 ops for fractured femurs I now have a fracture in my spine. All very painful . Poss cause AA takenfor5 years andstopped in 2016. But still has its disastrous effects.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I would certainly want to have a dexascan to show whether I needed to even consider taking AA at all (I refuse to). My bone density was fine and has barely changed over 7 years of taking pred. Taking AA would have been exposing me to its side effects unnecessarily. And the most recent research is showing that using it for more than a couple of years is not necessarily going to prevent broken bones - because it may cause a denser but more brittle form of bone to form. Low bone density does not correlate inevitably with fractures - people with normal bone density have fractures, people with low bone density don't always.

And as Gillymar shows - higher bone density isn't always a good thing if it was achieved artificially.

[Gab-Gordon in reply to PMRpro]

Many thanks. I have refused it since I was prescribed prednis in December because of the possible side effects and the length of time it stays in your body but have recently begun to panic about delaying it any longer. I will probably now wait for results from my bone scan which is due soon