Treatment Consideration in Postmenopausal Osteoporosis Patients at Imminent Fracture Risk

Abstract

Osteoporosis is the most common metabolic bone disease and constitutes a major public health problem all over the world. Most international clinical practice guidelines have conventionally positioned the class of antiresorptive drugs, the bisphosphonates, as the first-line medical therapy for the management of postmenopausal osteoporosis. With the clinical development of more potent antiresorptive drugs as well as bone-forming drugs, more therapeutic options with different mechanisms of action, therapeutic efficacies, and adverse effect profiles are currently available. Bone-forming drugs have demonstrated a faster and better protection to patients with osteoporosis such that clinical management decisions should position their prioritized use in patients with a very high fracture risk. This article provides a review on the preferential selection of bone-forming drugs for management of postmenopausal osteoporosis in patients with imminent fracture risk.