Comparison of the Effects of Oral Diclofenac Sodium Versus Acetaminophen Codein on Pain During Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotrypsy

Urinary calculi is the second common chronic renal disease. Todays, the extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is the most common method of treatment of kidney calculi, though this method was invented 30 years ago. This study was conducted to compare the effects of oral diclofenac sodium versus acetaminophen codein on pain during ESWL.
After signing informed consent, 90 patients with urinary calculi were randomly allocated into three equal groups (n = 30). In this study, one hour before the ESWL, 30 patients received the acetaminophen codeine (acetaminophen 650 mg plus codeine 20 mg) orally and 30 patients received diclofenac sodium 50 mg orally and 30 patients did not receive any drug. Severity of pain was assessed by the four-point scale during the procedure.
The results of our study showed that there was no statistically significant difference among the three groups regarding gender, weight, age, overall satisfaction, and pain severity during ESWL. Although morphine consumption and pain severity in groups of acetaminophen codeine and diclofenac sodium was lower than in the third group, this different was not statistically significant (P = 0.086).
Oral prescription of acetaminophen codeine and diclofenac sodium, one hour before ESWL, has a similar effect on pain management.