Double-blind, parallel comparison of etodolac and indomethacin in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee

Abstract

The efficacy and tolerability of etodolac and indomethacin were compared in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. Sixty-four patients entered a double-blind, parallel trial and were randomly assigned to receive 300 mg etodolac twice daily (n = 31) or 50 mg indomethacin 3-times daily (n = 33) for 6 weeks. Both groups showed significant (p less than or equal to 0.05) improvement from baseline in all efficacy assessments at the final evaluation. However, significantly (p less than or equal to 0.05) greater decreases from baseline were seen for etodolac than for indomethacin in patients' global evaluation, pain intensity, night pain, standing pain, walking pain, pain getting up from a chair, tenderness on pressure, and knee flexion. In addition, 67% of the patients in the etodolac group indicated improvement in their condition at the final evaluation, compared with 53% of the patients who received indomethacin. No patients in the etodolac group withdrew because of adverse reactions compared to 4 patients in the indomethacin group. Furthermore, significantly more patients in the indomethacin group (52%) than in the etodolac group (19%) reported drug-related adverse reactions. Thus, the results of this study strongly indicate that etodolac is more effective and produces fewer side-effects than indomethacin in the treatment of patients with osteoarthritis.