Successful treatment of sternal fracture nonunion with teriparatide.
CONCLUSIONS
Fractures have a significant impact on the quality of life for the patient in addition to an enormous indirect cost in lost productivity for our economy. While majority of fractures heal uneventfully, some fail to heal even after many months resulting in nonunion.


BACKGROUND
Sternal nonunions, although rare, are particularly onerous for the patient given the magnitude of impact on quality of life.


METHODS
Current treatment for fracture nonunions emphasizes various approaches to surgical fixation in addition to bone grafting. These treatments are aggressive and have a variety of drawbacks, rendering them suboptimal as a therapeutic approach.


CONCLUSIONS
Based on the success of teriparatide in animal studies to accelerate fracture healing, there is growing interest in using this drug in humans for the same purpose. We report a case of what we believe to be the first successful use of teriparatide in the healing of a sternal nonunion fracture.
Chintamaneni
S
S
Rheumatology, Stony Brook University Medical Center, New York, USA. schintamaneni1@yahoo.com
Finzel
K
K
Gruber
B L
BL
D000368:Aged; D050071:Bone Density Conservation Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017102:Fracture Healing / Q000187:drug effects; D005599:Fractures, Ununited / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013249:Sternum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000293:injuries*; D019379:Teriparatide / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
D050071:Bone Density Conservation Agents; D019379:Teriparatide