Diclofenac in combination with opiate infusion after joint replacement surgery.

The effect of intramuscular diclofenac or placebo on analgesia obtained and on opiate and antiemetic requirements was observed in a randomised double-blind study of sixty patients receiving continuous intravenous papaveretum. Those patients receiving diclofenac required less papaveretum (P = 0.001) than those receiving placebo. They also had lower visual analogue pain scores (VAS) at four hours (P less than 0.05) and decreased requirement for antiemetics (P less than 0.02). No gastrointestinal complications were observed in either group and blood loss did not differ significantly between the two.