Adhesion formation and uterine tube healing in the rabbit: a controlled study of the effect of ibuprofen and flurbiprofen.

To determine if the prostaglandin synthetase inhibitors ibuprofen and flurbiprofen can suppress postoperative adhesion formation, New Zealand White rabbits that had uterine tubal ligation underwent uterine tube reanastomosis and were given either saline solution (controls), 75 mg of ibuprofen intravenously every 6 hours, or 12.5 mg of flurbiprofen intravenously every 6 hours for 8 doses after operation. Both ibuprofen and flurbiprofen significantly reduced postoperative adhesions (p less than 0.025). With histologic indices of tissue reunion, ibuprofen and flurbiprofen were associated with significantly less scar thickness than controls (p less than 0.001) but did not have any significant effect on mucosal regeneration, foreign body reaction, and muscularis disruption. When all four histologic indices were compared, flurbiprofen but not ibuprofen had a significantly lower score than controls, indicating the greater potency of flurbiprofen over ibuprofen. Our findings show that ibuprofen and flurbiprofen can suppress perioperative and postoperative surgically induced inflammatory response associated with healing and thereby reduce adhesion formation and scar thickness.