Current medical research and opinion
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
A double-blind comparison of parenteral dipyrone and pethidine in the treatment of post-operative pain.
A double-blind trial was carried out in 100 patients with moderate to severe post-operative pain to compare the analgesic effectiveness over a 6-hour period of single intramuscular injections of 2.5 g dipyrone and 100 mg pethidine. Maximum pain relief was seen 2 hours after drug administration in both groups and there was no statistically significant difference in responses. No side-effects were reported.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
A comparative study of haloperidol and diazepam in the treatment of anxiety.
In a single-blind study in general practice, 60 patients with anxiety neuroses were randomly allocated to receive either 0.5 mg haloperidol twice daily or 2 mg diazepam 3-times daily for 6 weeks. Eighteen patients (6 on haloperidol and 12 on diazepam) were excluded from the analysis of efficacy. On the Hamilton Rating Scale both haloperidol and diazepam reduced the anxiety and depression scores. ⋯ After 6 weeks, 93% of patients felt 'better' or 'much better' on haloperidol, compared with 83% on diazepam. A few, minor side-effects were reported, slightly fewer on haloperidol than on diazepam. In the parameters tested in this study, haloperidol has been shown to be more effective than diazepam in the treatment of anxiety neuroses and appears to provide significantly better overall symptomatic relief and to be more acceptable to patients than diazepam.
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Clinical Trial
The penetrability of cephazolin into the subcutaneous fat and skeletal muscle of ischaemic lower limbs with atherosclerotic disease.
Seventeen patients with atherosclerotic disease, who were undergoing arterial reconstruction or amputation of the lower limb, had 2 g cephazolin injected per-operatively in two equal doses by intramuscular and intravenous routes. Samples of subcutaneous fat and skeletal muscle from the ischaemic leg, and serum were collected during the operation for assay of cephazolin content. The mean cephazolin levels in the serum, skeletal muscle and subcutaneous fat were found to be well above the minimum inhibitory concentrations required for most important Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
A double-blind comparison of nefopam and placebo in post-operative pain.
Nefopam (90 mg), an analgesic, was compared with placebo in a double-blind trial in patients who had undergone total abdominal hysterectomy operations. Analgesic activity was assessed by patients rating their pain before and 1 hour after administration of each treatment, by sequential analysis of patient and observer preference for treatment, and by calculation of the time interval between doses of the two treatments. Nefopam was found by observer preference to be significantly better than placebo in relieving post-operative pain. In patients with severe initial pain, the time between doses after nefopam was significantly longer than after placebo.
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The levels of cephradine were measured in serum, voluntary muscle and subcutaneous fat samples collected from 30 patients during surgical operations for peripheral vascular disease. Cephradine 2 g was administered in two equal doses by intramuscular and intravenous routes before each operation. The mean levels found in the serum and muscle were well above the minimum inhibitory concentrations required for most important Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens, in contrast to the relatively low mean level found in subcutaneous fat.