Pain
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Meta Analysis Comparative Study
Acute pain: individual patient meta-analysis shows the impact of different ways of analysing and presenting results.
Individual patient meta-analysis using information from clinically homogeneous acute pain trials with observations over 24h was used to investigate different ways trials can be analysed and reported. There were 13 third-molar extraction trials, with 1,330 patients using rofecoxib 50mg, 303 using ibuprofen 400mg, and 570 using placebo. Pain relief scores were available at individual time points, plus time to remedication. ⋯ The distribution of pain relief was highly skewed, especially at later times, when almost no patient was average. Different cut points for pain relief (at least 25, 50 or 75% maxTOTPAR) and longer duration changed the NNT for ibuprofen compared with placebo, but less for rofecoxib, reflecting longer duration of action of rofecoxib. Reporting for each treatment group the percentage of patients with 25, 50 and 75% pain relief at various times after dose, and reporting the proportion of patients with good or complete pain relief, and inadequate pain relief, at each time point, would improve acute pain trial reporting.