efficacy measurement of ketorolac in reducing the severity of headache

Objective: one of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (nsaids) named as ketorolacis frequently used to relieve acute pain. current study was conducted with the aimof ketorolac efficacy measurement as a pain killer agent for controlling the primaryheadache in emergency departments.methods: in this study, we enrolled 50 patients with primary headache who received60 mg ketorolac intravenously as a slow infusion in about 10 minutes. pain scoreswere evaluated with visual analog scale (vas) on arrival and also 1 hour and 2 hoursafter ketorolac infusion. statistical analysis was performed on collected data by usingwilcoxon and mann-whitney tests to assess the differences in vas pain scores.results: decreasing the vas more than 3 points from the arrival until 1 hour (p < 0.001),and more than 5 points from the arrival until 2 hours after ketorolac administration(p < 0.001) were seen. those with history of analgesic use before admission inemergency department in comparison with the others did not accompany with moredecline in pain score after 1 hour (p = 0.34) or 2 hours (p = 0.92).conclusion: it seems that ketorolac is assured, safe and well tolerated agent for paincontrol in patients presented with primary headache to the emergency departments.based on the results achieved in this study, ketorolac illustrates its perceptible effectswithin 1 hour after administration that even more prominent after 2 hours.