Teriparatide in the treatment of non-unions: Scientific and clinical evidences

IntroductionEach fracture has a failing risk which can lead to a non-union. Among the non-invasive strategies proposed to improve bone healing, also in non-union, the use of teriparatide, a drug for the treatment of the osteoporosis, has increasing supporting data.Experimental dataMany studies mainly on rats, but also on primates, demonstrate the positive effect on fracture healing of teriparatide, both in physiological and pathological conditions, with a more rapid evolution of the reparative callus.Clinical dataA double blinded randomized controlled study on wrist fractures demonstrated a positive effect, in term of healing speed, of teriparatide at the dose of 20 μg/day, but not at the higher dose of 40 μg/day. A prospectic randomized study on pelvic fractures showed a faster healing in teriparatide treated patients. The use of teriparatide in non-unions is reported as effective in numerous case report. The effect of teriparatide seems very useful in the non-unions consequent to an atypical femoral fracture after long-term administration of bisphosphonates.ConclusionsA conceivable positive effect of teriparatide on fracture healing is well-documented on animals, and very likely on humans, however further studies are needed to confirm these hopeful hypotheses.