ASPIRIN PROTECTS THE GASTRIC MUCOSA

As early as the mid 1970s, an injectible form of LAS (iLAS = Aspisol) was available for the treatment of post-surgical, traumatic, tumor and rheumatic pain conditions. It would be years before iLAS was “discovered ” for treatment of acute migraine attacks. Case reports appeared in the 1980s describing iLAS’s positive perfor-mance in migraine attack treatment. Its evaluation in clinical trials did not take place until the mid-nineties. In these trials, iLAS proved superior to placebo and at least as effective as non-oral ergotamine derivatives. In a double-blind multicenter trial including 278 patients iLAS was compared to subcutaneous sumatriptan 6 mg and placebo for the treatment of severe migraine attacks. Both drugs were superior to placebo. Pain free after 2 hours were 76.3%, 43.7% and 14.3 % of the patients following the administration of sumatrip-tan, iLAS and placebo, respectively. ILAS, however was signifi-cantly better tolerated than sumatriptan. Adverse events were report-ed in 7.6 % of patients treated with iLAS and 37.8 % treated with sumatriptan. Intravenous aspirin offers a save and effective treat-ment of acute migraine attacks in the emergency room