Description

For this project, adult patients (>40 years) undergoing lumbar spinal fusion will be randomized to undergo teriparatide treatment for 1 month prior to surgery. Patients will have their baseline BMD assessed by DEXA scan must be considered as osteoporotic (>2.5 SD from sex-matched young adult, or previous vertebral and/or femoral fractures) and indicated for spinal fusion surgery to undergo study. Exclusion criteria included Paget disease of bone, high laboratory tests for serum alkaline phosphatase or calcium, previous radiation treatment or fusion surgery to lumbar spine, bone tumors, metabolic bone disease, and hypersensitivity to teriparatide. Surgery involving single- or multi-level lumbar spinal fusion for any of the conditions: lumbar spinal stenosis, degenerative/isthmic/congenital spondylolisthesis, degenerative scoliosis. Only the surgeon and assessors will be blinded as patients will know their treatment arm.

Patients undergo a quantitative CT prior to initiation of teriparatide treatment. After one month of Teriparatide treatment, the drug is discontinued with another DEXA scan to see the changes in BMD. A quantitative CT will be performed after surgery and at 6 months postoperatively. Follow-up schedules include preoperative, immediate postoperative, postoperative 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and at 24 months. At all follow-up timepoints, any complications, fusion demonstrated by cross-trabeculation on x-rays (with final confirmation at the 6 month CT), and objective questionnaires for quality of life including the EuroQoL 5 dimensions 5-level questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L), back pain numeric rating scale (NRS), osteoporosis assessment questionnaire-physical function (OPAQ-PF) and ambulatory status assessment (ASA) questionnaires will be recorded. Other quality-of-life scores include ODI and SF-36, along with adherence evaluation of osteoporosis treatment (ADEOS), osteoporosis attitude questionnaire and osteoporosis knowledge questionnaire. Once a patient is identified to be suitable for this protocol, they will need to be assessed by a medical social worker to be unable to afford this entire treatment regimen before institutional support for the drug treatment is provided.