Prospective, controlled, double-blind study of i.v. tenoxicam for analgesia after thoracotomy.

We have shown that a single i.v. dose of tenoxicam 20 mg, after thoracotomy, when compared with placebo in 20 patients (with one exclusion), was associated with a reduction in consumption of papaveretum, assessed by patient-controlled analgesia, of 2.2 mg h-1 (22%) to 4 h and 1.4 mg h-1 (23%) to 12 h after operation (repeated measures analysis of variance: P less than 0.01). There was no reduction from 12 to 24 h. There was no significant difference between groups in pain scores or in side effects.