A study looked at patients who had total knee replacement surgery and received short-term intravenous flurbiprofen axetil (FA). The researchers included 120 patients from four major hospitals, comparing those with well-controlled hypertension to those with normal blood pressure. They tracked kidney injury markers and pain levels on postoperative days 2 and 5.
The study found that FA significantly reduced pain in both groups. While kidney injury markers like urine N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase levels rose in both groups after surgery, the incidence of acute kidney injury was low and similar between the two groups. Adjusting for other factors, high blood pressure did not increase the risk of kidney injury.
Other complications did not differ significantly between the groups. Although the drug poses a potential risk of tubular damage, this specific short-term use did not lead to more kidney problems in patients whose blood pressure was well-controlled. Readers should note that this was a small cohort study, so results may need confirmation in larger trials.