Médicaments de l’inflammation

Abstract

The anti-inflammatory drugs belong to various chemical classes; they act in a purely symptomatic manner on the aspecific reaction of the tissues to an aggressive agent. The corticosteroid agents which are steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have all a hormonal activity, concerning principally the metabolic regulations, and they cause pituitary-adrenal suppression. Some pathological states require particular attention but they are not necessarily contra-indicated for short duration prescriptions. Unerupted third molar extractions and oral dermatology are among their indications, with specific administration modalities. The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) regroup various chemical classes but without any steroidal structure. The prostanoids biosynthesis inhibition by the NSAIDs is responsible for many of their pharmacological properties but also of their side-effects (essentially at the digestive, renal and cutaneous level). They can be prescribed in odontostomatology either for their analgesic properties, either for their anti-inflammatory and anti-oedematous properties, after careful analysis of the benefit/risk ratio. The new anti-inflammatory drugs (coxibs, selective inhibitors of the cyclo-oxygenase 2) have their main practical application in rheumatology, but they do not really provide notable advantages with regard to the incidence of side effects compared to conventional NSAIDs. Enzymes are anti-inflammatory drugs of modest efficiency, essentially used as anti-oedematous agents.