The analgesic effect of indomethacin in the early post-operative period following abdominal surgery. A double-blind controlled study.

Abstract

Patients undergoing major intra-abdominal operations were randomly allocated to receive either 100 mg indomethacin (n = 26) or placebo (n = 20), both given as suppositories, 3 times a day for 3 days. The analgesic effect of indomethacin was measured during the first 5 post-operative days by grading the experience of pain on a closed visual analogue pain scale and further by registration of the amount of narcotics requested. Patients receiving indomethacin had significantly lower pain scores and received significantly fewer doses of narcotics (p less than 0.01). There were only minor side effects which were equally frequent in the 2 groups. These results indicate that indomethacin is an effective analgesic drug in the early post-operative period.