Widely used pain-relief drugs may actually interfere with healing in a common shoulder-repair surgery, researchers report.Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) -- which include aspirin, ibuprofen, and arthritis drugs such as Celebrex and Vioxx -- are often the medication of choice to relieve post-operative pain following rotator-cuff surgery.But according to a new study, these drugs may also have adverse effects on bone healing, which is a necessary part of rotator-cuff recovery. The findings, which are being presented Friday at the meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine in Quebec City, Canada, have been verified only in rats, and are therefore extremely preliminary.
