Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.
This 2014 review describes how ketamine, an anesthetic first sold in 1970, is used today in anesthesia, pain care, and critical care. The paper says ketamine has many effects: it can raise heart rate and blood pressure, relax airways, spare breathing, and block NMDA receptors. Newer research reported possible neuroprotective,…
Twelve children (ages 8–21) with chronic pain received oral ketamine three times a day for 14 days at doses between 0.25 and 1.5 mg/kg per dose to test short-term safety and see if pain improved. Two children at the highest dose (1.5 mg/kg) had dose-limiting side effects (sedation and anorexia),…
This systematic review and meta-analysis pooled seven randomized trials with 1760 adults seen in emergency departments (search to 21 May 2021). It found no clear difference in short-term pain scores between intranasal (IN) ketamine and IV analgesics or placebo at 5, 15, 25, 30, and 60 minutes. The need for…
