Cardiovascular risk associated with celecoxib or etoricoxib: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials which adopted comparison with placebo or naproxen.

CONCLUSION: On the basis of our meta-analysis, we can state that symptomatic benefits induced by the prolonged administration of celecoxib may be partially invalidated by a concomitant increase in vascular risk, particularly the increased risk of myocardial infarction found in celecoxib-treated patients, compared to controls taking placebo. In contrast, treatment with etoricoxib proved not to result in an increased risk of serious vascular events when compared with both the placebo and naproxen. Our meta-analysis also denotes that the alternative to COXIBs, represented by naproxen, does not show significant benefit in terms of reduced cardiovascular risk. Therefore, considering that the increase in incidence rate of cardiovascular events associated with treatment with celecoxib is small in absolute terms, it is reasonable to state that celecoxib is still a drug whose benefits outweigh the potential adverse effects on the cardiovascular system. PMID: 25029569 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: Minerva Cardioangiologica - Category: Cardiology Tags: Minerva Cardioangiol Source Type: research