Introduction & Objective: Post operation pain is one of the most common compliant in every surgery. The objective of this study was to determine whether the prophylactic use of rectal sodium diclofenac produces effective analgesia after cesarean section.

Materials & Methods: This randomized single blind controlled trial was carried out in Hamadan Fatemieh Hospital. The study period was from ِAugust 2000 to May 2001. Eighty patients undergoing both emergency and elective cesarean section were studied. They had uncomplicated operations that prolonged less than 90 minutes. They were divided in two groups the test group (40 patients) received 100 mg rectal diclofenac immediately before cesarean section followed by 50 mg at 6 hours after surgery. The second forty patients as control group received 50 mg pethidine during recovery but they did not receive any diclofenac suppositories.

Results: The results indicated that the severity of pain according to visual analogue scale (VAS) in the study group was not significantly lower than those of control group at recovery, 6 and 12 after surgery but the received analgesic in the study group was dramatically less than control group (P<0.05). The number of consumed pethidine was significantly lower in test group as compared to those of control group (16 and 64 times in test and control group respectively). The incidence of sedation and constipation was significantly lower in the test group (P<0.01). Also the incidence of nausea and post-operative pyrexia was comparable in the 2 group.

Conclusion: Rectal diclofenac provides effective analgesia when given after cesarean section. It also reduces the patients’ opioid sedative needs.