A single dose of paracetamol provides effective analgesia for about half of patients with acute postoperative pain, for a period of about four hours, and is associated with few, mainly mild, adverse events.
Diflunisal. A new oral analgesic with an unusually long duration of action.
The analgesic efficacy of single 500- and 1,000-mg doses of diflunisal (Dolobid), a new nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory analgesic, was compared in a double-blind study with that of acetaminophen, 600 mg, the combination of acetaminophen, 600 mg, with codeine phosphate, 60 mg, and placebo in 159 oral surgery outpatients. Using a self-rating record, patients rated their pain and its relief hourly for 12 hours after medication. Both doses of diflunisal were significantly more effective than acetaminophen alone and produced peak analgesia comparable to that of the acetaminophen-codeine combination. Diflunisal proved to have an unusually long duration of analgesic action. Acetaminophen and the combination were significantly superior to placebo through hours 2 and 5, respectively; both doses of diflunisal were significantly superior through the end of the 12-hour observation period. None of the active treatments produced more side effects than the placebo.