Michael J. Battistone and Allen Dale Sawitzke

University of Utah, 30N 1900E SOM 4B200, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.

Abstract  

Osteoarthritis is a major cause for pain worldwide and is increasingly so as the number of elderly people continues to grow. Finding treatments that are effective and safe for this pain has been challenging primarily because gastrointestinal risks increase with aging as well. One step in the direction of improvement was the development of selective COX-2 inhibitors, which as a group have lower gastrointestinal adverse reaction rates than traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. However, increases in cardiovascular adverse events with some of these have dampened initial enthusiasm for this approach. One of these inhibitors, celecoxib remains available in most areas of the world for use in pain associated with osteoarthritis. This review illustrates how best to consider it’s role in the current treatment of pain associated with arthritis with an emphasis on osteoarthritis.