Efficacy of piroxicam for postoperative pain after lower third molar surgery associated with CYP2C8*3 and CYP2C9

OBJECTIVE Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are metabolized by the cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYPs), predominantly CYP2C8 and CYP2C9. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible association of polymorphisms in the CYP2C8*3 and CYP2C9 genes with the clinical efficacy of oral piroxicam (20 mg daily for 4 days) after lower third molar surgeries with regard to postoperative pain, swelling, trismus, adverse reactions, need for rescue medication and the volunteer's overall satisfaction. MATERIALS AND METHODS For this purpose, 102 volunteers were genotyped for CYP2C8*3 and CYP2C9 polymorphisms. Briefly, genomic DNA was isolated from saliva collected from volunteers subjected to invasive lower third molar surgeries, and the preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative parameters were collected and analyzed. RESULTS An equal amount of piroxicam sufficiently managed postoperative pain and inflammatory symptoms, with visual analog pain scores typically <40 mm for all genotypes investigated. Furthermore, only two out of 102 volunteers heterozygous for CYP2C8*3 and CYP2C9*3 reported adverse side effects. CONCLUSION In general, slow metabolizers of piroxicam, who were volunteers with mutant alleles, were indifferent from normal metabolizers with the wild-type alleles and therefore did not require specialized piroxicam doses to manage postoperative pain and inflammation.