Osteoarthritis is a form of arthritis that characteristic the breakdown and eventual lessen of the cartilage of one or more joints. Among the over 100 various types of arthritis stage, osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease. Before age 45, osteoarthritis arises more frequently in males. After 55 years of age, it happens more often in women. Osteoarthritis is abridged as OA or referred to as degenerative arthritis or degenerative joint disease (DJD).

Mounting proof points to the heterogeneity of osteoarthritis (OA) pain, enhancing the required for more comprehensive evaluation of the efficacy of standard interventions. The study was looked into whether 14 days of the selective Cox-2 inhibitor etoricoxib (60 mg/day) would reform self-report of pain intensity and quality, and physical measures of hyperalgesia and function in individuals with knee OA.

This double-blind placebo-controlled trial involved 80 community-enrolled volunteers with painful knee OA (≥3/10 VAS), randomly assigned to Active or Placebo section. Self-report determine stiffness pain, function Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and pain quality (PainDETECT, Pain Quality Assessment Scale [PQAS]) and physical determination of locomotion and local (knee) and widespread (elbow) hyperalgesia were evaluated at Days 0, 4 and 14. Repeated Measures ANOVA analysed group differences.

The significant group × time interaction effects were found for all determination of the pain (all p < 0.001), with WOMAC pain sub-score enhancing by 30.7% by Day 14 and index knee mechanical hyperalgesia growing by 32.6%, while Placebo group values worsened. Both self-report and physical tests of function enhanced (p < 0.001–p = 0.006): WOMAC-function by 28.4%, walk time and sit-to-stand by 13%, pain throughout locomotion tasks by 12.4–32.6%. Pain quality also remarkably enhanced for the Active and declined for the Placebo group (p < 0.001): PainDETECT score lessen by 23.6% and PQAS paroxsysmal and surface sub-scores by 36.9% and 29.4%. There were also remarkable improvements in local cold hyperalgesia and widespread mechanical hyperalgesia (10–13.8%). 

Just 14 days of etoricoxib significantly improves pain intensity and quality, function and local and widespread hyperalgesia, determined by both self-report and physical tests.