Comparison of ibuprofen and piroxicam gel in the treatment of trauma pain: A randomized double-blind trial of geriatric population

This study aimed to compare the analgesic efficacy of topical ibuprofen and topical piroxicam for acute musculoskeletal injuries. In this prospective, randomized, controlled, double-blinded study, geriatric patients were assigned to groups to receive either topical ibuprofen (n = 70) or topical piroxicam (n = 69). The first dose of gel was applied in the emergency department and the remaining doses were self-administered at home by the patients thrice daily for 72 h. For each patient, the initial baseline visual analog scale (VAS) score (V 0) was compared with the VAS scores at the 60 min (V1), 120 min (V2), 24 h (V3) and 72 h (V4) time points. The decreases in VAS scores, clinical effectiveness of the treatments, and incidence of adverse events were evaluated. In the topical ibuprofen group, the VAS scores were significantly lower at each measurement time point compared to baseline (p