Nimesulide effective for acute fever management in adults, finds study

Most popular antipyretics like Aspirin, Paracetamol, Nimesulide, Ibuprofen, Mefenamic Acid are used to treat fever for a long time. Nimesulide inhibits prostaglandin synthesis weakly and has a different mechanism of action.

A new study by Dr S Arulrhaj and their team reported the effectiveness of Nimesulide in acute fever management in real-world clinical practice. The study is published in the Journal of The Association of Physicians of India.

The objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of Nimesulide in acute fever management in real-world clinical practice. Various clinical trials have reported anti-inflammatory and antipyretic properties of Nimesulide in a controlled setting, however fever management is different in clinical practice.

The study was designed as a retrospective, multicenter study and was conducted on electronic medical records (EMR) of 302 patients visiting out-patient departments at three centers between Jan 2016 and Jan 2020 and were prescribed Nimesulide for acute fever. . The effectiveness of Nimesulide was analyzed as a change in fever from baseline to follow-up visit within 14 days and tolerability as the number of side effects captured post-Nimesulide ingestion.

The results of the study was found to be

• The provisional diagnosis at the baseline visit reported major complaints like fever, fever with abdominal pain, body-ache, cough and myalgia.

• The mean baseline body temperature was found to be 103.2±1.5°F with a mean duration of 4.4±2.8 days significantly (p<0.0001) decreased to 99.7±1.8°F on the administration of Nimesulide.

• The liver and the renal profiles were found to be normal on records, and the side effects such as nausea and dyspepsia were reported only in 2% of patients.

Dr Arulrhaj and team concluded that "Nimesulide was found to be well-tolerated and effective as an antipyretic for acute fever management in adults during short-term use in real-world clinical practice." They also stated the study outcomes provide the necessary real-world evidence to physicians to consider Nimesulide as an alternative drug of choice to symptomatically manage the acute fever when treating a patient in out-patient department

For further information: S Arulrhaj, Mangesh Tiwaskar, Mudit Sabharwal, Rajiv Saikia, Sarfaraz Majid, Rahul Rathod, Amey Mane, Anup Petare, Ravindra Kale, KK Aggarwal "Effectiveness of Nimesulide in Acute Fever Management in Adults: Retrospective Electronic Medical Records Database Study Outcome in Outpatient Department" Journal of The Association of Physicians of India.