Low-dose intravenous ketamine for postcardiac surgery pain

Due to the severe adverse effects reported by the opioids consumptions, there is an urgent need to lower the use of opioids in postoperative surgery. In this study author's used low dose of ketamine infusions (LDKI) for postcardiac surgery and showed that LDKI does not promote a decrease in long-term postoperative pain.

To assess the pain levels at least 3 months following the surgery for individuals employed with a postoperative LDKI than individuals who were not managed with a postoperative LDKI.

The analysis initiated by the approval of Administrative and Ethics Board with all participants taking LDKI, and the same amount of sex-, age-, and surgery-matched subjects who did not get LDKI. Low-dose ketamine was produced utilising 100 mg of Ketamine in 100 ml of normal saline and run within 50 and 200 mcg/kg/h.

A total of 115 participants with LDKI and 115 participants without LDKI were found. The average time of the ketamine infusions was 26.8 h with 169.9 mg average dose. Forty-two percent of the participants of Ketamine and 38% of the non-Ketamine group announced that they had pain on discharge at an average of nine months following the surgery. Out of these participants, 26% of the nonketamine group and 30% of the ketamine group still possessed pain during the phone call. Males in both groups exhibited less acute and chronic pain as compared to the females.

These outcomes exhibit that LDKI does not help in reducing the long-term postoperative pain.