Comparative Study of the Effect of Indomethacin and Acetaminophen on Pain after Collagen Cross-Linking Surgery

One of the surgeries that needs to be considered after pain and discomfort is corneal cross-linking of the cornea. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of indomethacin and acetaminophen oral surgery before surgery on postoperative pain in the patients undergoing collagen cross-linking surgery.

The present study was a double-blind clinical trial study that was performed on all the patients undergoing collagen cross-linking surgery. Fifty patients were divided into two groups of 25 patients receiving acetaminophen 500 mg and indomethacin 75 mg before surgery. VAS scale was used to determine the severity of pain. Data were collected through a pain questionnaire and statistically analyzed using SPSS16 software.

In the acetaminophen group, 60% were female and 40% male, and in the indomethacin group, 64% were female and 36% male, which were similar in terms of gender. The mean age in the acetaminophen group was 24.28±5 and in the indomethacin group was 24.04±4. The two groups were similar in the case of age. Based on Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) after collagen cross-linking surgery, the pain intensity was 6.29 in the acetaminophen group and 7.61 in the indomethacin group, respectively, which was significantly lower in the acetaminophen group. Moreover, there was no significant difference between the amounts of postoperative pain in the two groups.

Oral administration of acetaminophen before corneal cross-linking surgery was more effective in reducing postoperative pain than indomethacin, while there was no difference in the number of postoperative analgesics between the two groups during 24 hours postoperation.