Figure 1

Study Design. Patients are randomly allocated to either the preemptive or the postoperative treatment group. Preemptive group patients get etoricoxib 120 mg p.o. prior to surgery (day 0, preoperative). After surgical intervention, depending on their respective allocation, patients receive either etoricoxib 120 mg p.o. or placebo for the next three postoperative days (day 1-2-3, postoperative). Postoperative group patients get placebo prior to surgery and continue afterwards with either placebo or etoricoxib 120 mg p.o. for three postoperative days (2 × 2 factorial study design). The listed outcome measures will be assessed at the marked time points respectively.