Effect of nasal salmon calcitonin on post-traumatic osteopenia following ankle fracture. A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study in 24 patients.

With the aim of preventing postfracture osteopenia, we randomized 24 patients with internally fixed ankle fractures to 3 months of treatment with placebo or 200 IU nasal salmon calcitonin (sCT) in a prospective, double-blind design. 3 patients were excluded, leaving 11 patients in the placebo group and 10 in the sCT group for study. Bilateral measurements of bone mineral content (BMC) in the coronal plane of the proximal tibia were performed by dual photon absorptiometry (DPA) postoperatively within 7 days of the fracture and after 1.5, 3 and 6 months. 3 months after the fracture, BMC in the injured legs had decreased by 14% in the placebo group and 2.1% in the sCT group. This difference was not statistically significant. In the healthy legs, a statistically significant intergroup difference was seen 6 weeks after the fracture, caused by a tendency towards a decrease in BMC of 4.6% in the placebo group, while BMC in the sCT group had increased by 7.4%. Nasal sCT may to some extent, but in this study not significantly, reduce postfracture osteopenia, and cause a significant effect on BMC in the healthy leg.