Ketamine Injection

Ketamine Injection

procedures that do not require skeletal muscle relaxation, for the induction of anesthesia before administering other anesthetic agents, and as a supplement to other anesthetic agents. 1 It is also used for acute agitation and treatment of acute or chronic pain.

Ketamine is unique sedative-hypnotic that produces dissociative anesthesia characterized by potent sedation, amnesia, and analgesia while maintaining cardiovascular stability and preserving spontaneous respiration and protective airway reflexes.12It is similar in structure, mechanism of action, and activity to phencyclidine (PCP), but ketamine is much less potent and has a shorter duration of action.8Ketamine has bronchodilatory properties and, in comparison to other sedatives (e.g., opioids, benzodiazepines), offers the advantage of fewer adverse reactions.

Ketamine Injection

hence, ketamine may be an effective alternative to conventional intensive care sedation in certain clinical scenarios (e.g., patients who develop adverse cardiovascular effects with opioids or benzodiazepines, sedation with preservation of spontaneous ventilation, patients with refractory bronchospasm or status asthmatics).

Ketamine is a sympathomimetic; elevations in heart rate and blood pressure are often mild-to-moderate, but it should not be used in patients in whom significant elevations would be deleterious.

Ketamine anesthesia is notorious for producing a cataleptic state where the eyes remain open with nystagmus; this “disconnected” state may be disconcerting to caregivers and warrants proper caregiver preparation. Other prominent effects of ketamine include excessive airway secretion and emergence reactions. The latter can be managed with short-acting benzodiazepines or barbiturates.