Efficacy and tolerability of a new Ibuprofen 200mg plaster in patients with acute sports-related traumatic blunt soft tissue injury/contusion

Ibuprofen is a widely used NSAID to treat soft-tissue pain, postoperative pain, and chronic pain. Medicated plasters nowadays are the modern drug delivery system to handle certain types of pain. An ibuprofen medicated plaster has newly developed an over-the-counter treatment for non-serious localized pain in adults. The results of this study revealed that 200 mg plaster is effective and safe for the treatment of pain due to acute sports-related traumatic blunt soft tissue injury/contusion in adults.

Ibuprofen is taken to treat non-serious pain. This study intended to determine the new ibuprofen plaster safety and efficacy for managing pain related to cute sports impact contusions/injuries.

The selected patients with acute sports-related blunt soft tissue contusions/injuries went through either placebo plaster or 200 mg ibuprofen plaster once daily for five successive days. The area under the visual analogue scale (VAS) of pain on movement (POM) over 0 to three days (VAS AUC0-3d) was considered as the primary endpoint. Other endpoints involved algometry AUC from 0 to three days (AUC0-3d) and five days (AUC0-5d). These measures used to assess the patient and global investigator assessment of efficacy and the improvement of sensitivity at the injured site. The safety was examined all the time during the study.   

The superior reduction in AUC0-3d was showed by the Ibuprofen plaster, and the Least Squares (LS) mean difference in favour of the ibuprofen 200mg plaster noticed was 662.82mm*h. VAS AUC of POM showed a significant improvement After the 12h, one and five days of therapy. The ibuprofen plaster also exhibited significantly improved tenderness with 1.87 N/cm2*d, and 1.87N/cm2*d LS mean difference in algometry/tenderness AUC0-3d and AUC0-5d, respectively. The effectiveness of Ibuprofen 200 mg plaster was rated as a good/excellent by the greater number of patients and investigators than placebo plaster at all the study time points. Also, the treatment-emergent adverse events showed by Ibuprofen plaster were mild and few.  

The study findings suggest 200 mg Ibuprofen plaster as a safe and effective to treat acute sports-related traumatic blunt soft tissue injury/contusion related pain among the adults.