Efficacy and Safety of Oral Diclofenac Sustained release Versus Transdermal Diclofenac Patch in Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Randomized, Open Label Trial

To compare the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of transdermal patches of diclofenac sodium with oral diclofenac sustained release (SR) in patients of chronic musculoskeletal MSK pain conditions.

The eligible patients were given either transdermal diclofenac patch or tablet diclofenac SR. Pain was assessed at 2 and 4 weeks using a visual analog scale. Adverse events were recorded. Patients with 18-65 years old of either gender with score of ≥4 on a 11-item numeric rating scale-numeric version of visual analog scale for pain with diagnosis of primary osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee or hand of at least 3 months duration, with independent radiological confirmation of OA or having pain associated with other MSK conditions such as soft-tissue rheumatism, cervical and lumbar back pain, and fibromyalgia, of at least 3 months duration were included in this study.

Transdermal diclofenac diethylamine patch and tablet diclofenac sodium sustained release (SR) do not significantly differ in the reduction of numerical rating scores at the end of 4 weeks (P = 0.8393).

Transdermal diclofenac was equi-efficacious as tablet diclofenac sodium SR in reducing pain due to chronic MSK pain conditions.