Comparative Evaluation of Preemptive Analgesic Effect of Injected Intramuscular Diclofenac and Ketorolac after Third Molar Surgery- A Randomized Controlled Trial.

INTRODUCTION: Analgesia pre-emptively administered effect-ively aid in management of pain. Pre-emptive analgesia is anti-nociceptive treatment which prevents altered central sensitization of afferent inputs.

AIM: To compare and evaluate the pre-emptive analgesic efficacy of preoperatively administered ketorolac and diclofenac for controlling postoperative pain after third molar surgery.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 50 patients with symmetrically impacted third molars were divided into two groups, 30mg intramuscular injection of ketorolac and 75 mg diclofenac sodium were used in the respective groups. The visual analogue scale was used to assess post operative pain for three days and the patients were also evaluated for the number of rescue analgesia.

RESULTS: The data was statistically evaluated with paired t- test. The maximum time taken for pain perception for Group A Ketoralac was 5.48 hrs and Group B Diclofenac sodium was 4.9 hrs and p=0.235 which was not significant. The mean number of tablets taken by the patients in the first three post operative days was 3.24 in Group A i.e., Ketorolac and 4.04 in Group B i.e., Diclofenac sodium. The values were compared using the paired t test. The p value = 0.004, which was significant.

CONCLUSION: Ketoralac showed better pre-emptive analgesic effect for post-operative pain management after third molar extraction. The immediate post-operative pain free period provided by both ketorolac and diclofenac by intramuscular route was same.