knee pain

knee pain

Rofecoxib Proves More Effective Than Celecoxib And Acetaminophen For Knee Pain
By Maria Bishop
Special to DG News

PHILADELPHIA, PA -- November 3, 2000 -- Rofecoxib is as effective as celecoxib and acetaminophen for the treatment of knee pain in
osteoarthritis-and even more efficacious in some areas, noted researchers at the 64th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In a double-blind, randomized study, neither celecoxib nor acetaminophen proved statistically superior in efficacy to rofecoxib on any end point, and, on several end points, rofecoxib proved most effective. Gregory P. Geba, MD, of the Section of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, led a team of United States researchers in a six-week trial examining 382 patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Patients received rofecoxib (12.5 mg daily or 25 mg daily), celecoxib (200 mg daily) or acetaminophen (1000 mg four times daily). Over the first six days of treatment, the onset of therapeutic efficacy was assessed by patient diaries using the Western Ontario McMaster Universities (WOMAC) scales for pain on walking, pain at night, pain at rest and morning stiffness, as well as patient global assessment of response to therapy (PGART). WOMAC and PGART were reassessed at two, four and six weeks.

Results of therapy showed that some participants discontinued due to lack of efficacy (17 percent of acetaminophen users; 8.3 percent and 8.4 percent of rofecoxib users, respectively; and 9.2 percent of celecoxib users).

Over the first six days of therapy, noted Dr. Geba, a greater reduction of pain on walking was achieved by rofecoxib users. Rofecoxib was also superior to acetaminophen and celecoxib for rest pain and night pain. Over weeks 2 and 4 and 6, rofecoxib 25 mg was superior to both acetaminophen and celecoxib for WOMAC pain domain and stiffness domain. All treatments in this study were well tolerated, the researchers noted, with no significant differences in adverse-event incidence.

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