Prevelance of Epigastric pain in patients taking oral NSAIDS alone versus those taking combination of NSAIDs and misoprostol

                                                                   ABSTRACTObjective:                  This study was done to study degree of relationship between epigastric pain due to gastritis and consumption of NSAIDs.Design:This was observational type of study.Duration and time:This study was conducted at Mayo Hospital Lahore in General Outdoor patient department from july 2017 to December 2017.Method:Every patient taking oral NSAIDs or combination of oral NSAIDs and misoprostol twice daily from last two months was included in our study. Written consent form was signed by each patient to be part of study. A questionnaire was made to ask about symptoms of patient. The date obtained was analysed using Microsoft excel and spss.Results:A total of 153 patients were included in our study. Patients taking only oral NSAIDs were 97(63.39%) whereas those taking combination of Oral NSAIDs and Misoprostol were 56 (36.60%).Among the patients who were taking oral NSAIDs alone 73(75.25%) developed epigastric pain whereas remaining 24( 24.74%) did not develop any such symptom. Out of the patients taking combination NSAIDs+ misoprostol only 11 (19.64%)  developed epigastric pain others did not.Conclusion: Using NSAIDs can cause gastritis and thus should not be prescribed alone. Our study has very well established role of Misoprostol in protection of gastric mucosa against harmful affects of NSAIDs