Post-Oral Surgery Pain

Several dose-ranging studies have assessed the efficacy of acetaminophen in post-oral surgery pain.

Two double-blind, single-dose studies (unpublished) evaluated patients who had undergone oral surgery and were experiencing moderate to severe pain. In these studies, acetaminophen 650 mg and 1000 mg was superior to placebo in all summary measures for moderate pain. For more severe pain, acetaminophen 1000 mg was superior to acetaminophen 650 mg. In two randomized studies, acetaminophen 2000 mg did not provide greater analgesia compared with acetaminophen 1000 mg.^65,66

Three studies (unpublished) compared the relative analgesic efficacy of acetaminophen, aspirin, and placebo in patients experiencing pain following dental surgery. Two double-blind, single-dose studies demonstrated that acetaminophen 975 mg and 1000 mg were significantly better than aspirin 650 mg in relieving pain. In a third study, acetaminophen 1000 mg and aspirin 1000 mg were significantly more effective than placebo but were not different from each other.

Several studies have compared the analgesic efficacy of acetaminophen and ibuprofen following dental surgery. Most studies showed that both active treatments were effective compared with placebo, but in some studies ibuprofen 400 mg provided greater pain relief than acetaminophen 1000 mg in patients with moderate to severe baseline pain.^67,68

In another study, patients were randomized to receive 500 mg of diflunisal or 1000 mg of acetaminophen prior to oral surgery. Both treatments were effective and the difference in mean overall pain scores between the two regimens was not significantly different.⁶⁹

Quiding and colleagues⁷⁰ evaluated the analgesic efficacy of a two-dose regimen of codeine 60 mg compared with acetaminophen 1000 mg in patients undergoing surgical removal of a third molar tooth. Acetaminophen 500 mg was used as the control. After two doses, acetaminophen 1000 mg was superior to acetaminophen 500 mg, and the efficacy of codeine 60 mg corresponded approximately to acetaminophen 500 mg.

Two randomized, double-blind studies (unpublished) evaluated the onset of analgesia using acetaminophen 1000 mg, naproxen sodium 220 mg and 440 mg, and placebo in patients who experienced moderate to severe postoperative dental pain. The first study found that all active treatments were more effective than placebo, and no difference for onset of pain relief between the active treatments was observed. The second study demonstrated that all active treatments had shorter time to onset of pain relief and were more effective than placebo.

Episiotomy Pain

Postpartum patients receiving a single 600-mg dose of acetaminophen reported a degree of relief greater than with either salicylamide or placebo and equivalent to the same dose of aspirin.⁷¹ Kantor and associates⁷² compared the effects of single doses of acetaminophen 600 mg and aspirin 600 mg or 1200 mg in postpartum patients. The three active treatments were significantly superior to placebo. In a double-blind evaluation comparing acetaminophen, propoxyphene, propoxyphene/acetamino-phen combination, and placebo, acetaminophen alone was comparable to the propoxyphene combination and superior to both propoxyphene alone and placebo.⁷³ The analgesic efficacies of acetaminophen 650 mg, ibuprofen 200 mg, and placebo were evaluated in a randomized, double-blind study (unpublished) involving hospitalized postpartum patients with moderate to severe pain due to episiotomies. Both active treatments were superior to placebo, whereas ibuprofen was significantly better than acetaminophen.

Orthopedic Surgery

McQuay and colleagues^74,75 performed two studies comparing the analgesic equivalence and efficacy of varying doses of ketorolac, bromfenac, and acetaminophen in patients who had elective orthopedic surgery. In the first study, patients were treated with placebo plus one of the following: acetaminophen 500 mg, acetaminophen 1000 mg, ketorolac 5 mg, ketorolac 10 mg, or ketorolac 20 mg. Acetaminophen 1000 mg was significantly superior to acetaminophen 500 mg. Ketorolac 20 mg was superior to acetaminophen 500 mg and ketorolac 5 mg and 10 mg but was not superior to acetaminophen 1000 mg.⁷⁵ In the second study, patients were randomized to receive placebo, acetaminophen 1000 mg, bromfenac 5 mg, bromfenac 10 mg, or bromfenac 25 mg. In terms of analgesic efficacy, bromfenac 10 mg was similar to acetaminophen 1000 mg.⁷⁴

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