Background: soft tissue injuries accompany the patient's life and make up the main number of visits to primary health care facilities. As a rule, contusions occur when falling or hitting hard objects and are inherently associated with pain. Aim: to determine the analgesic therapy efficacy for soft tissue injuries of the upper and lower extremities. Patients and Methods: a pilot prospective comparative study was conducted including 54 subjects aged 25–50 years (27 patients with shoulder contusion and 27 with hip contusion). Contusions in all patients were characterized by the formation of subcutaneous or intradermal hemorrhage and soft tissue edema without muscle damage. 8 groups were formed to assess the efficacy of the tablet and injection administration types of ketoprofen and diclofenac, depending on the location of the injury. The time of analgesic effect onset on the 1st day after the injury and the trend of pain severity were evaluated using a visual analog scale, as well as edema severity. Treatment and follow-up of patients were discontinued when a persistent analgesic effect was achieved and the function of the limb was restored. Results: the patients' median age was 44.7 years. The ratio of men and women was 1:1. A feature of the pain syndrome assessment during the initial treatment was that patients with a shoulder contusion rated pain 2-3 points higher than patients with a hip contusion. In the upper limb contusions, ketoprofen in tablets activated already at the 10th minute, in the lower limb contusions – at the 20th minute. The drug injectable form provided a pronounced analgesic effect already at the 5th minute. Both the tablet and injectable forms of ketoprofen demonstrated a benefit over diclofenac. By the 3rd-4th day, it was possible to achieve complete pain relief in all cases. Conclusion: this pilot study confirmed the efficacy and rapid onset of the ketoprofen analgesic effect in the treatment of soft tissue injuries. KEYWORDS: contusion, soft tissue, pain, analgesic therapy, ketoprofen, diclofenac. FOR CITATION: Zhukov D.V., Ustikova N.V., Prokhorenko V.M. Treatment of soft tissue injuries. Russian Medical Inquiry. 2021;5(3):145–149. DOI: 10.32364/2587-6821-2021-5-3-145-149.
Treatment of soft tissue injuries
