PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Sanjay Agarwala
AU  - Mayank Vijayvargiya
TI  - Repurposing denosumab for recalcitrant bone healing
AID  - 10.1136/bcr-2020-238460
DP  - 2021 Feb 01
TA  - BMJ Case Reports
PG  - e238460
VI  - 14
IP  - 2
4099  - http://casereports.bmj.com/content/14/2/e238460.short
4100  - http://casereports.bmj.com/content/14/2/e238460.full
SO  - BMJ Case Reports2021 Feb 01; 14
AB  - Fracture healing has four phases: haematoma formation, soft callus, hard callus and remodelling. Often, non-healing fractures have an arrest of one of these phases, which need resurgery. We have repurposed denosumab for impaired fracture healing cases to avoid surgical intervention. Here, we report a series of three cases of impaired fracture healing where denosumab was given 120 mg subcutaneous dosages for 3 months to enhance healing. All the three cases have shown complete bone union at a mean follow-up of 6.7 months (5–9 months) as assessed clinically and radiologically, and have observed no adverse effect of the therapy. Denosumab given in this dose aids fracture healing by increasing callus volume, density and bridges the fracture gap in recalcitrant fracture healing cases where the callus fails to consolidate.