Off-patent drug helps reduce leg pain

Patients with intermittent claudication are less likely to experience pain in their legs when walking if they take the vasodilatory drug naftidrofuryl, according to the findings of a Cochrane Review.

Cochrane researchers studied data from seven clinical trials that compared naftidrofuryl with placebos.

They found that patients who took 200mg of the drug - three times a day for at least three months - had 37% more pain-free walking than those taking a placebo.

In 55% of patients taking naftidrofuryl the condition also improved, compared to only 30% of those on a placebo, the reviewers added.

Lead researcher Tine de Backer, from the Heymans Institiute of Pharmacology in Gent, Belgium, said: 'It would make sense to give naftidrofuryl alongside recommending lifestyle changes such as stopping smoking, physical exercise and also prescribing anti-platelet drugs and statins.'