Is Ibuprofen use really a bleeding risk factor?
There is evidence that pre or post surgery use of non stereoidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like Ibuprofen may be proved dangerous for Patients because its supposed that such factors are increasing bleeding risk after plastic surgery. Now a research study that was published in the April issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (the official journal of ASPS (American Society of Plastic Surgeons).
The leading authors Jeffrey Kozlow and Brian Kelley claim that Ibuprofen is a very useful tool for plastic surgery: “Ibuprofen is a useful medication in the setting of surgery with multiple beneficial effects”. Such benefits are effective and safe control of post surgery pain and low cost (comparing to other pain medications)
The study included an analysis of the research literature of older studies that were comparing other pain medications with ibuprofen in cases of plastic surgery procedures. These older studies were investigating 443 patients (that performed breast cancer surgeries, hernia repair, cosmetic facial surgeries etc) that were taking either ibuprofen or other medications. The medications that were compared were ibuprofen and the prescription-only NSAID ketorolac, acetaminophen and acetaminophen plus codeine.
All pain control factors were proved to work fine in terms of pain relief while only 7{f4e1575822752660c3387461b06f16047197db710b64f29e8565d582c3a8cd4f} of the patients that used ibuprofen and 11{f4e1575822752660c3387461b06f16047197db710b64f29e8565d582c3a8cd4f} of the ones that used the other medications were not satisfied with the pain treatment. Also the risks for post surgery bleeding were not really high.. only 3.5{f4e1575822752660c3387461b06f16047197db710b64f29e8565d582c3a8cd4f} for the patients that used ibuprofen and 4.1{f4e1575822752660c3387461b06f16047197db710b64f29e8565d582c3a8cd4f} for the rest. Dr Kelley says: “Bleeding is a significant concern for plastic surgeons and NSAIDs are routinely held with this in mind”. We also need to highlight ibuprofen is a low cost drug, yet its not commonly used in plastic surgeries.
This is a really important finding that could probably change the scenery in plastic surgery.
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