According to a recent real-world study in India, intramuscular injection (IM) of Etoricoxib 90 mg/mL was found to be an effective and well-tolerated acute pain relief therapy.

Keeping in view the dearth of evidence investigating the use of Etoricoxib via alternative routes (specifically IM injection) than oral, this study assessed the safety and efficacy of an innovative and novel formulation of Etoricoxib 90 mg/mL when administered intramuscularly for acute pain among patients in outpatient settings.

The comprehensive patient data from 383 patients across 42 Indian centres were gathered. This included clinical and demographic characteristics along with comorbidities. Approval from the Institutional Review Board/Independent Ethics Committee was obtained before the data collection. Subsequently, the safety and efficacy of IM Etoricoxib were analyzed at 30 and 60 minutes’ post-administration.

Etoricoxib was used for the management of different painful conditions- arthritis of the knee, post-traumatic pain, post-operative pain, fracture, back pain, back injury, strain and sprain among these patients. As found, 98.17% of the total patients initially had moderate-to-severe pain as per the visual analogue scale (VAS).

At 30 minutes, the proportion of patients experiencing severe pain dropped to just 6.78%, further declining to 4.17% at the 60-minute mark. The VAS score considerably improved initially to 30 minutes and 60 minutes, with greatest improvement at 60 minutes. There was no injection site pain reported in more than half of the patients. About 70.23% of physicians vouched for IM Etoricoxib injection to be a superior pain relief option compared to currently used NSAID injections. Rescue analgesia was needed by only 12.79% of patients following the Etoricoxib injection. Almost all the patients did not face any adverse events after the injection, hence it was well-tolerated, the study disclosed.