A Comparative study for Safety and Efficacy of Oxaceprol and Diacerein in Osteoarthritis of Knee Joints

Objectives: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis which has a growing number of patients and having major impact on the quality of life. According to modes of action the drugs for OA are divided into two groups. First group, NSAIDs which provide symptomatic relief but have no influence on progress of the disease and shows higher adverse events. The second group of drugs acts as disease modifying agents. Recent data from clinical trials have demonstrated that agents like Diacerein & Oxaceprol specifically block key disease mechanisms & effectively retard the progression of structural changes in knee OA patients. The study was undertaken to compare the efficacy & safety of Oxaceprol and Diacerein in the patients of Osteoarthritis of Knee joints. Experimental/ Computational work done: Total 60 patients(4 withdrawn) suffering from mild to moderate OA of knee joint were included from outpatient orthopedic department of Shree Krishna hospital, Karamsad. Twenty eight patients received diecerein(50 mg b.i.d.) and 28 patients were given Oxaceprol(200 mg t.i.d.) for 10 days and patient responses were measured using VAS and Lequesne scale, before and after drug treatment. Suspected adverse event was evaluated by filling ADR form. Ethical committee approval and patient consents were obtained prior to the beginning of the study. Results and discussion: The VAS Scale was reduced from 7.321 ± 0.9449 to 4.75 ± 1.146 (Mean±SD) for Diacerein and 6.821 ±1.1564 to 4.321±1.1564 for Oxaceprol. The Lequesne scale was reduced from 6.0±1.054 to 4.21±1.0923 for Diacereine and 6.0±0.8819 to 3.839±1.0475 for Oxaceprol. Both the results were found to be statistically significant. Difference in VAS and Lequesne scale between the Diacerein and Oxaceprol were 0.757 and 0.099 respectively (p >0.05). There was not any Adverse Event reported. Conclusions: Both the drugs, Diacerein and Oxaceprol, individually and equally effective in Osteoarthritis condition. Both Diacerein and Oxaceprol are found to be safer.