Postoperative analgesic effects of celecoxib or rofecoxib after spinal fusion surgery

Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs are recommended for the multimodal management of postoperative pain and may have a significant opioid-sparing effect after major surgery. The analgesic efficacy of the cyclooxygenase-2 nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, celecoxib and rofecoxib, have not been evaluated after major orthopedic surgery. This study was designed to determine whether the administration of a preoperative dose of celecoxib or rofecoxib to patients who have undergone spinal stabilization would decrease patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) morphine use and/or enhance analgesia. We evaluated 60 inpatients undergoing spine stabilization by one surgeon. All patients received PCA morphine. The patients were divided into three groups. Preoperatively, they were given oral celecoxib 200 mg, rofecoxib 50 mg, or placebo. The outcome measures included pain scores and 24-h morphine use at six times during the first 24 postoperative h. The total dose of morphine and the cumulative doses for each of the six time periods were significantly more in the placebo group than in the other two groups. The morphine dose was significantly less in five of the six time intervals in the rofecoxib group compared with the celecoxib group. The pain scores were significantly less in the rofecoxib group than in the other two groups at two of the six intervals, and less than the placebo group in an additional interval. Although both rofecoxib and celecoxib produce similar analgesic effects in the first 4 h after surgery, rofecoxib demonstrated an extended analgesic effect that lasted throughout the 24-h study. We thus recommend that rofecoxib be used as a preoperative component of pain management that includes PCA morphine in patients undergoing spine stabilization surgery.