Ibuprofen tablets vs gel

[Mr Pharm S]

Does any one have any info/links on the action of ibuprofen tablets vs gel.

Reason is that a patient asked if she can use ibuprofen gel on Warfarin. I advised no as risk of bleeds. However on Pharmacy Manager when you enter ibuprofen gel into her records is shows no interactions with warfarin but Ibuprofen tablets do?!?

As far as Im concerned the gel takes the drug across the skin to the blood system instead of a tablet taking the drug to the blood system via the G.I tract. Therefore should be treated the same regarding drug interactions.

Am I right?

[Sir_Dispensalot]

you are. I'm fairly sure there was a paper on it a couple of years back showing that 10% gel applied tds would give plasma levels approximately equivalent to 400mg tds - can't for the life of me find a link for it. I think it was mentioned in the journal and c & d.
You were absolutely correct, in my opinion, to give the advice you did.

[Sir_Dispensalot]

just found this on a pubmed search:

Oral versus topical Ibuprofen for chronic knee pai... [Pain Physician. 2010 Sep-Oct] - PubMed result

and this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10957700