Objective: Many studies on the efficacy of preemptive analgesia have been processed in different ways. But the value of preemptive analgesia is still controversial. The goal of this study was to compare analgesic effects of a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) for oral surgical pain according to 3 different administration times.
Study design: Using a randomized, parallel-group, single-center, and active-controlled test design, this study was conducted with 80 healthy patients undergoing a surgical removal of an impacted mandibular third molar requiring bone removal. The oral NSAID was first administered 1 hour preoperatively, or 1 hour postoperatively, or no scheduled administration pre- or postsurgery. Whenever patients felt at least moderate pain (score > or =5 on a 10-point scale) after surgery, they were instructed to take the same drug. Pain intensities and times to the first and second onsets of postoperative pain from the end of surgery were assessed for 24 hours.
Results: Of the 80 enrolled subjects in this study, 25 patients were assigned to the preemptive group, 26 to the posttreatment group, and 29 to the no-treatment group. The demographic distribution and duration of surgery in the 3 groups were statistically similar. The mean time to first onset of postoperative pain was significantly prolonged in the posttreatment group (277.2 minutes, P < .05) compared to the preemptive group (158.4 minutes) and the no-treatment group (196.5 minutes). The mean time to second onset of postoperative pain was not significantly different among the 3 groups. No significant statistical difference was found among the mean pain intensities at the first and second onsets of postoperative pain in the 3 groups.
Conclusions: In this small selected group of subjects and limited study design, the analgesic effects of NSAID administered preoperatively were no longer effective for postoperative pain. The results in this population imply that scheduled postoperative analgesics before pain development are adequate for postoperative analgesia without preoperative administration.