Comparison of oral nonsteroidal analgesic and intrauterine local anesthetic for pain relief in uterine fractional curettage: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Objective: We sought to investigate the analgesic efficacy of oral dexketoprofen trometamol and intrauterine lidocaine in patients undergoing fractional curettage.

Study Design: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted on 111 women. Subjects were randomly assigned into 4 groups to receive either 25 mg of dexketoprofen or similar-appearing placebo tablets and either 5 mL intrauterine 2% lidocaine or saline. The main outcome measure was the intensity of pain measured by a 10-cm visual analog scale. Pain scoring was performed prior to, during, and 30 minutes after the procedure.

Results: No statistically significant difference was found among the mean pain scores of women during the procedure in the dexketoprofen and saline, placebo and lidocaine, and dexketoprofen and lidocaine groups. The mean pain scores in all 3 groups revealed significant reduction when compared with placebo and saline combination (P = .001).

Conclusion: Administration of intrauterine lidocaine or oral dexketoprofen appears to be effective in relieving fractional curettage associated pain. However, a combination of them does not work better in further reduction of pain.