Intravenous ibuprofen: Clinic experience in the treatment of postoperative pain

About 30 [%] of surgical patients report high or extreme intensity postoperative pain as their main concern, which is even more relevant than satisfactory surgery results. NSAIDs are the most commonly prescribed drugs worldwide for the treatment of acute and chronic pain. Ibuprofen is widely used in prevention and treatment of pain. Recently, intravenous ibuprofen has been approved by the FDA (www.accessdata.fda.gov) for the management of mild-moderate pain and management of moderate-severe pain complementary to opioid analgesia. Additionally, has been approved for fever reduction. Given its potential as adjuvant therapy in multimodal analgesia, a review of the perioperative use of intravenous ibuprofen was conducted by analyzing literature available in English and Spanish in PubMed and Ovid MEDLINE through December 2015. The review included pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data from patients of different ages as well as clinical studies where the use of opioids was quantified in the postoperative period and the synergy between these two types of drugs was analyzed. Intravenous ibuprofen offers advantages over oral presentation and is an alternative to the limited availability of intravenous NSAIDs as part of multimodal perioperative analgesia.