[Treatment of extra-articular rheumatism with pirprofen]

The efficacy and tolerance of pirprofen in the treatment of extra-articular rheumatisms were studied in 3 double-blind trials which included a total of 227 patients. The first study was conducted in a medical center for sports injuries and compared a daily dose of 800 mg of pirprofen to a placebo over 7 days on 58 patients. By the third day, pirprofen was judged by doctors to be of good or excellent efficacy in 79% of patients, as compared to 24% on placebo (p less than 0,01). After 7 days, the results were confirmed with 63% of good and excellent efficacy in the pirprofen group versus 12% for the placebo (p less than 0,001). The two other studies compared pirprofen (800 mg/day) to ketoprofen (300 mg/day). One of the trials was conducted in a medical center for sports injuries on 79 patients. After 7 days of treatment, improvement was noted in 58 to 80% of the patients. The better results observed in sports medicine as compared to the traditional rheumatological diseases is due to the difference in the recruitment of the patients. In both trials, the 2 active drugs had a clear, comparable efficacy. Side effects were rare: primarily gastralgia which were more frequent amongst patients treated by pirprofen (11 out of 25) than those on placebo (4 out of 26). In trials comparing pirprofen and ketoprofen, side effects, especially gastralgia were noted in 30% of the patients in each group. 14 patients treated by pirprofen and 10 patients treated by ketoprofen interrupted treatment for side effects.