Aceclofenac is a non steroidal anti inflammatory drug which is widely used in orthopedics for the effective management of pain and inflammation. It shows poor water solubility and short half-life (4 hours). To improve its bioavailability aceclofenac hydroxypropyl beta cyclodextrin (HP-beta-CD) complex was prepared and then characterized for improving the solubility, dissolution and overall improvement in analgesic and anti inflammatory activity. The aceclofenac was complexed with HP-beta-CD by kneading method and then its 3 fractions were coated with PVP for different time. The proper mixture of dispersion was used for the potential therapeutic activity. The prepared aceclofenac HP-beta-CD complex showed more than 4 fold improvement in solubility (0.41 +/- 0.06 mg/mL of aceclofenacHP-beta-CD complex against 0.10 +/- 0.01 mg/mL of pure drug). The FTIR and XRPD confirmed the complex formation and amorphization of drug, respectively. The aceclofenac: HP-beta-CD inclusion complex showed better dissolution profile than pure drug aceclofenac. The pure drug aceclofenac showed a drug release of 28.02% at the end of 12 h. On the other hand the aceclofenac HP-beta-CD complex showed 89.29% drug release after 12 h. The cyclodextrin complex showed 59.34% analgesia as compared to the 56.04% analgesia shown by the standard oral tablet formulation. The anti inflammatory activity was 90.09 +/- 1.02 and 92.22 +/- 1.05% in terms of % inhibition of rat paw edema at the end of 24 h for standard and test, respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that the aceclofenac HP-beta-CD complex may serve as the prolonged drug delivery system along with PVP coating for the effective management of orthopedic pain and inflammation.