A double-blind study comparing single dose of intramuscularly injected zomepirac to meperidine in the treatment of postoperative pain.

Eighty-eight patients with moderate or severe postoperative pain were entered into a double-blind, single-injection trial designed to assess the analgesic efficacy of intramuscular zomepirac 100 mg. Patients were randomly selected to receive zomepirac injection, meperidine 100 mg or meperidine 50 mg. By most criteria of analgesic efficacy, zomepirac was superior to meperidine 50 mg and as effective as meperidine 100 mg. In terms of peak analgesia (and of patients' global evaluations), both meperidine 100 mg and zomepirac were superior to meperidine 50 mg. Total analgesia provided by zomepirac was greater than that with meperidine 100 mg, which was greater than that with meperidine 50 mg. Significantly fewer patients needed remedication during the observation period, and mean time to remedication was significantly longer for the zomepirac group than for either meperidine group. No serious adverse effects were reported.