Source: J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol  |  Posted 9 years ago

The prostaglandin synthesis inhibitor ketoprofen may mediate gastric slow-wave dysrhythmias induced by transcatheter arterial chemoembolisation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common primary malignant liver tumour.

However, the improved gastric myoelectrical activity does not stop nausea or vomiting after this chemoembolisation, say specialists in Taichung, Taiwan.

Noting recent observations of gastric slow-wave dysrhythmias induced by transcatheter arterial chemoembolisation, the specialists speculated that enhanced endogenous prostaglandin might explain the myoelectrical changes. This led them to investigate if ketoprofen might mediate the dysrhythmias.

Twenty-three patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who had been admitted for transcatheter arterial chemoembolisation were enrolled into this study. A follow-up chemoembolisation was scheduled for two months later.

During their next admission for chemoembolisation, the patients received 12-hourly intramuscular injections of ketoprofen 50 mg for three days, 48 hours before chemoembolisation, as premedication. Cutaneous electrogastrography was performed before chemoembolisation and within the following 24 hours.

The change in the fasting cutaneous electrogastrography parameters after chemoembolisation without premedication was not statistically significant. After the procedure, however, the postprandial cutaneous electrogastrography parameters (including the dominant frequency), the percentages of dominant frequency in the normal, bradygastric and tachygastric range, and the dominant frequency instability coefficient, all deteriorated significantly.

After the follow-up chemoembolisation with ketoprofen premedication, neither the fasting nor the postprandial cutaneous electrogastrography parameters in the control group changed significantly.