The efficacy of parecoxib in improving pain after total knee or total hip arthroplasty: Systematic review and meta-analysis

The cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) selective inhibitor parecoxib is widely used in the treatment of pain and inflammation. Parecoxib has been adopted for use for postoperative analgesia following a range of surgical procedures (orthopedic, general, gynecological, and dental surgery). Total knee or total hip arthroplasty (THA) surgery is mostly done in older patients, so postoperative analgesics need to be used more carefully, and the safety and efficacy of parecoxib in this type of surgery need to be further verified. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of parecoxib on patient safety, cumulative morphine consumption and was at 24 and 48 hours in the analgesic treatment of total knee or THA for meta-analysis and systematic review, with few studies in this area so far. METHODS: We searched the Online Database Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, and CBM (SinoMed), CNKI, VIP, WANFANG up to January 2021. According to the value of I(2), the random-effect model or fixed-effect model was supposed to combine data from studies, respectively. Publication bias was assessed through funneling plot and Beggs test. Review Manager 5.3 and Stata 16.0 software were applied to perform the statistical analyses. RESULTS: Eleven RCTs which involved 1690 participants were included in this study. The meta-analysis indicated parecoxib sodium could not significantly reduce the incidence of adverse events after total knee or THA compared with placebo. There was no statistical significance in incidence of nausea and vomiting. 24 hours resting VAS score was statistically significant between the group. The 48-hour resting VAS scores did not indicate a significant difference between the groups. CONCLUSION: Parecoxib can reduce the incidence of adverse events after total knee or total hip surgery to some extent but cannot reduce the incidence of nausea and vomiting. Twenty-four hour postoperative analgesia is better than placebo, but 48 hours after operation analgesia is the same as placebo.