[Diclofenac sodium in osteoarthritis. Is there risk of hepatotoxicity? A systematic review].

Diclofenac sodium is one of the most prescribed NSAIDs in the world which is frequently used in therapy of musculosceletal diseases. Therefore it is important to justify clinical and literary data about diclofenac hepatotoxicity. We searched for diclofenac versus placebo investigations performed in patients with osteoarthrosis. A method of the search included international databases such as EMBASE, Cochrane Database, databases of medical publishers and search engines. Total amount of patients in all trials was 1121. 583 patients took diclofenac and 538 ones took placebo. Meta-analysis was performed in StatsDirect software. We estimated 95% confidence interval, Q and 12 criteria, Mantel-Haenszel and DerSimonian-Laird statistics and relative risk of adverse reactions. Relative risk of hepatitis in diclofenac group did not differ from placebo. Hereby the fact of diclofenac hepatotoxicity needs more detailed study and genetic factors of risk should be taken into account.