ReviewCureus2025
To What Extent Do Disease-Modifying Anti-rheumatic Drugs Affect Bone Union in Trauma and Orthopaedic Patients?
Review in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Fracture healing: from molecular and cellular mechanisms to therapeutic strategies.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Review
- To What Extent Do Disease-Modifying Anti-rheumatic Drugs Affect Bone Union in Trauma and Orthopaedic Patients?Cureus · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Patients with rheumatoid arthritis have an increased risk of postoperative complications in orthopaedic surgery because of the effect of the disease on bone as well as the immunomodulatory medications that can interfere with bone healing. Our literature review aims to synthesise current literature on disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) available to aid decision-making in withholding or continuing these medications in the perioperative period. A literature search was conducted on Embase, PubMed, and MEDLINE. The initial search around foot and ankle osteotomies and DMARDs only yielded four original papers. After expanding our search to include trauma and elective procedures, the search yielded 80 papers. In total, nine papers were included for review after applying our inclusion and exclusion criteria. Methotrexate (MTX) appears to have a dose-dependent effect on bone healing with lower doses used in rheumatoid patients showing no adverse effect on bone healing. In spinal surgery, those who continued DMARDs had greater radiographic fusion outcomes and fewer disease flares compared to those who discontinued the drug. Biologic medications, however, showed adverse effects on bone healing and carried a higher rate of revision surgery. Our review has highlighted an important literature gap on the effects of DMARDs on bone union. The main finding from the review is that continuing conventional DMARDs in the perioperative period for joint surgery appears safe, but biologics should be held for at least two weeks or until there are signs of wound healing.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.