Proglumetacin in arthritis of the hip and the knee. Results of a post-marketing surveillance study.

An open, multicentre, outpatient study involving 77 Italian orthopaedic and rheumatology centres was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of proglumetacin in the treatment of arthritis of the hip and of the knee. A total of 1522 patients each received 450 mg/day proglumetacin (150 mg tablets X 3) for a period of 4 weeks, with checks at the end of weeks 1, 2, 3 and 4. The evaluation of efficacy was carried out using the following parameters: pain, inactivity, stiffness, limitation of mobility. Pain was reduced by 62% from the beginning to the end of the study. Complete tolerability was demonstrated in 82.9% (1262 patients) of the study group; side-effects, mainly involving the gastrointestinal tract, were seen in only 17.1% of the study group (260 patients). Side-effects were reported in 2.2% of the patients; 5.3% of these were shown to result from proglumetacin treatment. It was concluded that proglumetacin, at the optimum dose of 450 mg/day, answers the need for an effective and well tolerated drug of first choice in the treatment of arthritis.