The effectiveness of paracetamol/ tramadol in pain control in elderly wrist surgery and rehabilitation

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Distal radius fracture (DRF) is the most common fall-related fracture and the most common fracture of the upper extremities. The purpose of the present study was to ascertain the effectiveness of paracetamol in pain modulation compared with paracetamol/tramadol in postoperative wrist fracture fixation. This interventional cohort study was conducted in a calculated sample size of 60 patients. The chosen criteria to evaluate the two groups during follow-up were: consumption of daily pain drugs; The Short Form (12) Health Survey; Visual analog scale (VAS); the Quick Disability Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Score (QDASH); Complications; and Correlation VAS and QDASH. The endpoints assessment after the infiltrations were: from the moment of trauma to 35 days after the surgery. The first group (n=30) was a group treated by 1 tablet a day of 75 mg Tramadol + 650 mg Paracetamol (PT). The second group (n=30) was a group of patients treated by 1 tablet of paracetamol (P) 1 gr as needed Maximum 3 times a day. At the 35 th day, the mean VAS difference was p=0.027 for PT, also the mean SF-12 difference was p=0.016 for PT. At the 14th day from the surgery, the mean QDASH difference was p=0.042 for PT. Based on a drugs daily use as pain killer, paracetamol/tramadol was significantly better than paracetamol alone with lesser systemic complication. This reported the paracetamol/tramadol combination had more effective pain modulation than alone paracetamol with less complication in postoperative wrist surgery pain management among elderly patients.