Article:

Derry, S., Wiffen, P. J., Kalso, E. A., Bell, R. F., Aldington, D., Phillips, T., Gaskell, H., & Moore, R. A. (2017). Topical analgesics for acute and chronic pain in adults – an overview of Cochrane Reviews. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 5(5), CD008609.

• Name of article: Topical analgesics for acute and chronic pain in adults ‐ an overview of Cochrane Reviews
• Published in: The Cochrane database of systematic reviews
• Authors: Derry et al
• Year: 2017
• Type of article: systematic review
• 13 Cochrane reviews: 206 studies with around 30,700 participants.
• Acute pain had 4 reviews
• They assessed the efficacy and harms from a range of topical analgesics applied to intact skin in a number of acute and chronic painful conditions. Topical analgesics were compared with topical placebos.
• Treatment was assessed for at least 50% effectiveness
• Adverse events were similar with topical placebo
• Author’s conclusions: There is good evidence that some formulations of topical diclofenac and ketoprofen are useful in acute pain conditions such as sprains or strains, with low (good) NNT values. There is a strong message that the exact formulation used is critically important in acute conditions, and that might also apply to other pain conditions
• Diclofenac Emulgel, ketoprofen gel, piroxicam gel, and diclofenac plaster work reasonably well for strains and sprains.
• Limitations: they did not compare topical to oral analgesics

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