Desmopressin effectiveness in renal colic pain management: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: This meta-analysis of trials was conducted to evaluate the impact of desmopressin on renal colic pain relief in comparison to more typically used medications (opioids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs [NSAIDs]). Methods: PubMed, EMbase, Scopus, CINHAL, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched for clinical trials. Pain reduction and need for rescue treatment were the outcomes of interest. Results: Ten studies met our inclusion criteria and were analyzed. Pooling of data showed that, on a scale of 1-10, pain reduction after 30 minutes was significantly higher in NSAID in comparison to desmopressin (3.39 with a 95% confidence interval [CI] of 4.62-2.16; P<.01), but this reduction was not significantly different between NSAID and desmopressin-NSAID combination (-0.28 with 95% CI of -0.62 to 0.05; P = .01). Summary of relative risk (RR) for the need for rescue treatment in desmopressin in comparison to NSAID was 0.31 with a 95% CI of 0.13-0.74 and a significant RR (P<.04), but no difference was shown in desmopressin-NSAID combination in comparison to NSAID (0.70 with a 95% CI of 0.49-1.00; P<.19). On this outcome, desmopressin in comparison to opioid showed insignificant RR (1.82 with a 95% CI of 0.36-4.34; P = .72), but this need in desmopressin in comparison to desmopressin-opioid combination was 0.75 with a 95% CI of 0.56-0.99 and a significant RR (P = .042). Conclusion: In conclusion, the results of this systematic review suggest that, according to the present low-quality studies, desmopressin can be used as an adjuvant therapy in renal colic management in combination with opioids. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.