Ibuprofen may be used as ‘bone-safe’ analgesic treatment after Colles’ fracture
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For patients with nonsurgically treated Colles’ fractures, ibuprofen reduced pain without causing changes in fragment migration or functional, densitometrical and biochemical outcomes, according to published results.
In a single-center, triple-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial, Marius Aliuskevicius, MD, and colleagues assigned 96 patients with nonsurgically treated Colles’ fractures to one of the following three cohorts: a 3-day ibuprofen group, a 7-day ibuprofen group and a control group. According to the study, the 3-day group received 600 mg of ibuprofen three times daily for the first 3 days and a placebo for the following 4 days, the 7-day group received 600 mg of ibuprofen three times daily for 7 days and the control group received placebo tablets three times daily for 7 days. Outcome measures included radiological fragment migration for 5 weeks, range of motion, DASH score, bone mineral density of the injured wrist, changes in serum and osteocalcin and analgesic effects.
Overall, pain scores in the first 3 days were lower in the ibuprofen groups than in the placebo group. Additionally, researchers found “no significant differences” in radiological migration or functional, densitometrical and biochemical effects between the ibuprofen groups.
“Treatment with ibuprofen did not affect healing of Colles’ fracture. The addition of ibuprofen to analgesic treatment provided better pain relief in the acute phase of the fracture,” the researchers wrote in the study. “These findings may offer an indication for ibuprofen as a bone-safe analgesic and may be translated into other fields of orthopedics for treatment of cancellous bone fractures,” they wrote.
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