Oral nalbuphine for the treatment of pain after dental extractions.

A randomized, double-blind comparison of nalbuphine 30 mg or 60 mg by mouth and dihydrocodeine 30 mg by mouth was conducted in 75 patients with moderate to severe pain after surgery for dental extractions under general anaesthesia. A significant reduction in pain intensity followed each treatment and persisted throughout the 4-h observation period after nalbuphine, but only for 3 h after dihydrocodeine was given. Reduction in pain intensity was significantly greater 2, 3 and 4 h after the use of nalbuphine 60 mg than following dihydrocodeine 30 mg, and the mean total pain intensity difference was greater following nalbuphine 60 mg than following dihydrocodeine. Nalbuphine 60 mg effectively provided complete or good pain relief in more than 50% of the patients and only three patients in this group required additional analgesia during the period of observation, compared with nine patients in each of the other groups. However, the patients who received nalbuphine 30 mg had a significantly higher mean pain intensity before treatment than those in the other groups. The side-effects encountered were those typical of opioid medication; there were no statistically significant differences between the groups.