Current medical research and opinion
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
A double-blind comparison of parenteral dipyrone and pethidine in the treatment of post-operative pain.
A double-blind trial was carried out in 100 patients with moderate to severe post-operative pain to compare the analgesic effectiveness over a 6-hour period of single intramuscular injections of 2.5 g dipyrone and 100 mg pethidine. Maximum pain relief was seen 2 hours after drug administration in both groups and there was no statistically significant difference in responses. No side-effects were reported.
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Twenty-seven patients with tennis elbow were treated with triamcinolone acetonide (40 mg/ml) injected locally into the tender area without local anaesthetic. Reduction of pain or complete relief was achieved in 1 to 72 hours, although in 9 cases exacerbation of pain occurred before relief was given. The recurrence rate at 6 months was 17.8%. The study shows that triamcinolone acetonide is a useful preparation in the relief of this condition.
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A single dose of 2g cephradine was administered intravenously at the time of anaesthetic induction to 20 patients with occlusive arterial disease. Concentrations of cephradine were measured in serum, subcutaneous fat from the groins of 10 patients underdoing arterial reconstruction and in the subcutaneous fat and skeletal muscle of 10 legs amputated for severe arterial ischaemia. Concentrations of cephradine were adequate for antibacterial prophylaxis at the time of operation in all serum samples, 9 out of 10 samples of subcutaneous fat from reconstruction cases, all muscle and 8 of 10 fat samples from the level of section of amputated limbs, and in 8 of 10 muscle and fat samples from the distal parts of amputated limbs. These results confirm that a single intravenous dose of 2 g cephradine given with anaesthetic provides adequate serum and tissue concentrations for antibacterial prophylaxis during vascular surgery.