CASE REPORT article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Bone Research
This article is part of the Research TopicRecent Advances in the Management of Osteoporosis: Prevention, Diagnosis and TreatmentView all 29 articles
Atypical femoral fracture and jaw osteonecrosis under high doses of denosumab, healed with the aid of low dose of denosumab: a case report
Provisionally accepted
- 1Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland
- 2Bone Unit, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 3Universite de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
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Atypical femoral fractures (AFF) and osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) are rare but serious complications associated with long-term use of antiresorptive therapies such as denosumab. Denosumab discontinuation to allow for bone healing is not possible because of the high risk of spontaneous multiple vertebral fractures. We present a case of concurrent AFF and ONJ in a patient previously treated with denosumab 120mg monthly. The patient was managed with a low-dose denosumab regimen tailored according to bone turnover marker monitoring, resulting in successful bone union and resolution of ONJ.
Keywords: atypical femor fracture, Denosumab (anti-RANKL antibody), Jaw osteonecrosis, Low-dose, Treatment
Received: 05 Dec 2025; Accepted: 27 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Lassoued, Lamy and Gonzalez Rodriguez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hanene Lassoued
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