The effect of intramuscular diclofenac or placebo on analgesia obtained and on opiate and antiemetic requirements was observed in a randomised double-blind study of sixty patients receiving continuous intravenous papaveretum.
Those patients receiving diclofenac required less papaveretum (P = 0.001) than those receiving placebo. They also had lower visual analogue pain scores (VAS) at four hours (P < 0.05) and decreased requirement for antiemetics (P < 0.02). No gastrointestinal complications were observed in either group and blood loss did not differ significantly between the two.
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