progress in the current issue of the Journal of intravenous anesthesia comparing two anti-inflammatory drugs () ketorolac and diclofenac with a placebo. Ketorolac is currently only approved for this use in the United States, intravenous diclofenac was recently approved in the United Kingdom.In this study, 353 patients received one of these drugs or a placebo after oral surgery. It ‘was a single dose, randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, in three sites. The patients underwent surgical removal of one or more third molars, which usually results in moderate to severe pain. The procedure creates a challenge for control of pain and the opportunity to evaluate the analgesic.
A key aspect of oral surgery is to control the patient’s pain following a procedure. The goal is to relieve pain and promote rapid recovery without side effects of opiates. An early study shows that Dyloject, a new drug diclofenac intravenously, has promised to achieve these objectives.
Pain relief over six hours total, as measured by visual analog scale, was seen as the setting for this study. Other indicators of effectiveness research included measures of pain intensity and relief, and time to pain relief. Adverse events were monitored and found to be minimal.
Intravenous diclofenac was given five different doses ranging from 3.75 mg to 75 mg, and ketorolac was administered at a dose of 30 mg. The study sought to define the minimum dose of intravenous diclofenac, which has an analgesic effect significantly different from placebo.
Respecting the end of pain for 6 hours, diclofenac rated higher than placebo in all but the lowest dose.
Comments are closed.