A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ANALGESICS USED IN THE TREATMENT OF KNEE OSTEOARTHRTIS AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic disease that involves the deterioration of cartilage in joints resulting in friction between the bones causing joint stiffness, pain, and restricted movement. t's the foremost common type of arthritis which accounts for approximately 75% of the disease. Worldwide, it ranks as one of the top 5 diseases that cause disability. This is a prospective, observational, comparative study of the effectiveness of analgesics like NSAIDs, Acetaminophen and Opioids in knee osteoarthritis patients, designed according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) guidelines which is done for a period of 4 months in a total of 52 patients meeting their criteria. The study included weekly follow-up for 2 months and the data was calculated using statistical analyses. The study results involved seven treatment groups of drugs used in knee osteoarthritis, given alongside with other class of drugs. The results were obtained by equal efficacy shown by all the drugs but, greater level of significance was seen by Acetaminophen + Tramadol (P=0.0) and Aceclofenac + Pregabalin (P=0.0) followed by other dual therapy and triple therapy agents. These next level significance agents included were selective COX-II inhibitor etc. Hence, we concluded that dual and triple therapies are more effective than others and can provide a quicker pain relief in knee osteoarthritis and these opioids and coxibs use in combination with other drugs will be more effective.