Effect of parecoxib in the treatment of postoperative cognitive dysfunction

BACKGROUND: Parecoxib is a selective cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibitor widely used as an analgesia technique in perioperative period for its potent anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. However, litter is known about its effect on postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). The purpose of this meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was to evaluate the effect of parecoxib in the treatment of postoperative cognitive dysfunction. METHODS: We searched PubMed, Cochrane Library and Embase databases for relevant studies up to October 2017. We selected fixed-effect model for analysis of data heterogeneity. Statistical analyses were performed by using Review Manager Version 5.3 for Windows. RESULTS: Four RCTs with 904 patients that underwent surgical operations were included. The meta-analysis demonstrated parecoxib could significantly decrease the incidence of POCD on postoperative day 1, day 3, day 5, and day 7 when compared with control treatment; IL-6 and S100β concentrations were lower up to postoperative day 2. The consumption of morphine, fentanyl and tramadol in parecoxib groups were lower than control groups. CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis suggested that the administration of Parecoxib was effective in treating early POCD within 7 days and reducing IL-6 and S100β concentrations within 2 days after operations. Nevertheless, our current study with some limitations such as the small sample size only provided limited quality of evidence, confirmation from further meta-analysis with large-scale, well-designed RCTs is required.