[Randomized, double blind, multicentre, parallel group study to compare efficacy and safety of acemetacin and indometacin in patients with activated osteoarthrosis of the knee].

137 patients with active osteoarthritis of the knee joint were randomized in the ratio 2:1 to be treated with either one of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs acemetacin (180 mg/day) or indomethacin (150 mg/day). After 4 weeks of treatment, the complaints, as assessed by the patients by means of the Lequesne Index, decreased in both groups to a comparable extent. However, the overall assessment of the therapeutic success, both by patients and by physicians, showed a trend in favor of acemetacin: 70% of the patients in this group reported that their complaints were markedly improved or had subsided entirely, as opposed to 51% of the patients under indomethacin. As for adverse events, gastrointestinal complaints were dominant in both treatment groups, but significantly more patients interrupted the treatment in the indomethacin group (22.2%), than in the acemetacin group (5.4%). 83% of the patients declared the tolerance of acemetacin to be good or very good, in comparison to only 56 % of the patients in the indomethacin group, a highly significant difference (p = 0.0009). This significantly better tolerance of acemetacin in comparison to indomethacin confirms results from previous clinical studies.