The Impact of Ibuprofen vs. Paracetamol on Pediatric Fever Management
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62497/irjgp.121Abstract
Introduction: Fever is a prevalent clinical indicator in childhood requiring antipyretic medications between Ibuprofen and Paracetamol. Ibuprofen together with paracetamol serves as the principal medicine for treating fevers in patients. The medical community shows limited agreement regarding how well Ibuprofen and Paracetamol work together with their safety measures when treating pediatric fever cases. Researchers studied the effectiveness and safety aspects of Ibuprofen against Paracetamol for treating pediatric fever.
Materials and Methods: A 12-month research project took place at Khyber Teaching Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex (Peshawar, Pakistan), including 161 pediatric patients of 6-month to 12-year age. Participants were divided between two groups, with 80 on Ibuprofen therapy and 81 taking Paracetamol therapy. The time to achieve fever resolution at or below (≤ 37.5°C) temperature was evaluated as the main outcome measure, with secondary measures consisting of resolution time and the recorded side effects and requirements for additional antipyretic drugs. The testing for numerical variables relied on t-testing methods together with chi-square testing for the analysis of categorical variables in SPSS version 25.
Results: Fever resolution occurred more rapidly within the Ibuprofen group at 9.8 ± 2.1 hours than the Paracetamol group at 12.3 ± 2.4 hours based on statistical analysis with p < 0.001. The Ibuprofen treatment resulted in faster fever resolution than the paracetamol treatment, so patients experienced symptoms for 18.5 ± 4.2 hours instead of 20.1 ± 4.5 hours (p = 0.035). The frequency of additional dose administration for patients in the Paracetamol group exceeded the Ibuprofen group by 28.4% compared to 15% (p = 0.042). Most participants in the Ibuprofen group experienced gastrointestinal problems, although these statistics were not significantly different between groups.
Conclusion: Research showed Ibuprofen gives better outcomes than Paracetamol in treating pediatric fever because it provides faster relief that lasts longer. The two medications demonstrated excellent compatibility with the body while causing minimal adverse reactions to the patients. The use of Ibuprofen stands as the optimal choice to treat fever in pediatric patients.
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Copyright (c) 2023 Jalil Khan, Anam Qazi, Behram Khan Afridi, Yusra, Laila Gul (Author)
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