Although the anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac is commonly used to treat acute pain in children is not approved for that purpose in all age groups. However, a new review suggests that perhaps should be authorized.
The team of Dr Imogen Savage, University of London, searched the literature on studies that examined the diclofenac as a treatment for acute pain in children aged 18 or less.
The authors found seven studies that observed the efficacy of analgesic and 79 that focused on safety.
In the efficacy analysis, the focus was usually on postoperative pain. In this regard, the use of diclofenac reduced by 40 percent the need to use painkillers “rescue”, compared with the use of placebo or no treatment.
As for security, Savage and his colleagues found that children treated with diclofenac were 40 percent less likely to suffer nausea or vomiting, compared with children who received other drugs.
Less than 0.24 percent of children experienced serious side effects after taking diclofenac and none had episodes of bleeding that required surgery.
Savage told Reuters Health that diclofenac is “a useful drug in children, and one that is already used quite widely in the UK, although formulas probably need more ‘child-friendly’.”
The results of the review appear in the Cochrane Library, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.