Ketamine for Pain Management: A Review of Literature and Clinical Application

Kelsea Caruso, Dion Tyler, Abbie Lyden

Orthop Nurs. 2021 May-Jun 01;40(3):189-193

 

Abstract

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic used increasingly as analgesia for different manifestations of pain, including acute, chronic, cancer and perioperative pain as well as pain in the critically ill patient population. Its distinctive pharmacologic properties may provide benefits to individuals suffering from pain, including increased pain control and reduction in opioid consumption and tolerance. Despite wide variability in proposed dosing and method of administration when used for analgesia, it is important all clinicians be familiar with the pharmacodynamics of ketamine in order to appropriately anticipate its therapeutic and adverse effects.