The effect of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on recovery from exercise-induced muscle injury - 1. Flurbiprofen

Objectives: The objective was to assess the effects of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, flurbiprofen, and of placebo on muscle soreness, strength, swelling, and stiffness following experimentally-induced muscle injury in volunteer subjects. Methods: A one-time exercise consisting of repeated lowering of heavy loads with the elbow flexors was used to induce injury, which was manifested by soreness, swelling, stiffness, and a strength loss, i.e., force deficit, measured as isometric torque, of 50%. Partial recovery of strength left a torque deficit of 25% two weeks later. After carrying out the exercise, subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: 1. no treatment [N = 14], 2. flurbiprofen, 100 mg t.i.d. [N = 15], or 3. placebo [N = 15]. The study was double-blind with respect to groups two and three. Drug or placebo administration was begun on the day preceding the exercise. Soreness, strength, stiffness, and arm circumference were monitored fur two post-exercise weeks and compared to pre-exercise values. Data were analyzed with a repeated measures analysis of variance [ANOVA]. Results: In the ANOVA neither group differences nor group by time interactions were observed with respect to soreness, stiffness, or circumference. A small difference in isometric torque recovery was seen over the first five post-exercise days, with the flurbiprofen groups showing slower recovery than the placebo group. Conclusions: Flurbiprofen provides no detectable therapeutic benefit over a two week period following injury induced in the elbow flexors by eccentric contraction, as judged by subjective reports of muscle soreness and by objective measurements of swelling, stiffness or voluntary isometric force. A small difference in force recovery over the first five post-exercise days suggested that recovery was slightly retarded in the flurbiprofen group compared to the placebo group.