From: Topical NSAIDs for chronic musculoskeletal pain: systematic review and meta-analysis
 | Number of | Events/total |  | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Type of adverse event | Trials | Patients | Treatment | Placebo | RR (95% CI) |
Local adverse events | 15 | 1734 | 53/949 | 48/785 | 1.0 (0.7 to 1.4) |
Systemic adverse events | 16 | 1838 | 33/1002 | 14/836 | 1.7 (0.96 to 2.85) |
Withdrawals beacuse of adverse events | 10 | 1225 | 10/697 | 7/528 | 0.9 (0.4 to 2.1) |
Active controlled trials: topical vs oral | |||||
 | Number of | Events/total |  | ||
Type of adverse event | Trials | Patients | Treatment | Placebo | RR (95% CI) |
Local adverse events | 2 | 443 | 19/243 | 4/118 | 3.0 (1.1 to 8.5) |
Systemic adverse events | 3 | 764 | 82/408 | 87/356 | 0.83 (0.6 to 1.1) |
Withdrawals because of adverse events | 3 | 764 | 19/408 | 24/356 | 0.7 (0.4 to 1.3) |