Methods The two weeks open trial of Dolgit (5% ibuprofen) cream was carried out in 49 patients (pts) with osteoarthrosis (OA) (10 men and 39 women, age range 43–71 years) with disease history about 6,4 years. The 30 pts had gonarthrosis, 6 pts had OA of shoulder joint and 13 pts had lesion of interphalangeal joints. Patients were given an application of 5% ibuprofen cream at the affected joints 3 times a day (600 mg of ibuprofen per day) during 2 weeks.

Results Results obtained after 1st cutaneous application showed that reducing of joint pain was marked in 40 min in 10 pts (77%) with OA of interphalangeal joints and in an hour in half of pts with gonarthrosis and OA of shoulder joint. At 7^th day joint pain score reduced in all pts from 1,9 to 1,3 (p < 0,05), joint score – from 1,7 to 0,7 (p = 0,05), pain in movement had also reduced but not significantly (p > 0,05).

At the end of trial joint pain score decreased to 0,5 (p < 0,05) in pts with OA of interphalangeal joints and OA of shoulder joint, and in pts with gonarthrosis it reached 1 (p > 0,05). Joint score had the similar trend.

Conclusion The final patient’s treatment efficacy assessment was ?good? in 35 pts (71%) and satisfactory in others. Tolerability of Dolgit cream was good, but in one case were signs of light skin irritation that disappeared without interruption of treatment.

Thus we consider the cutaneous application of Dolgit cream to be real alternative to systemic usage of NSAIDs in treatment of OA because of its good efficacy and tolerability.