New Drug Controls Patient's Pain Post-oral Surgery

A novel pill shows promising results in decreasing the pain and promoting a rapid recovery following oral surgery.

The study compared two intravenous nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)-diclofenac and ketorolac-along with a placebo.

In this study, 353 patients were given one of these drugs or a placebo following oral surgery.

Total pain relief over 6 hours, as measured by the visual analog scale, was considered the endpoint for this study. Other indicators of efficacy researched included measures of pain intensity and relief, and time to pain relief.

Intravenous diclofenac was given in five different dosages, ranging from 3.75 mg to 75 mg, while ketorolac was given in a 30-mg dose. The study sought to define the minimum dose of intravenous diclofenac that gave an analgesic effect noticeably different from the placebo.

In meeting the endpoint of 6-hour pain relief, diclofenac rated better than the placebo in all but the lowest dosage.

This research found that intravenous diclofenac worked more quickly than ketorolac. A significantly higher proportion of patients given intravenous diclofenac reported 30 percent or greater pain relief after 5 minutes compared with those given ketorolac or the placebo.

The study has been published in the journal Anesthesia Progress.

Source: ANI