Perioperative Pain Management for Complex Pancreatic Resections for Patients with Chronic Pancreatitis.
Pancreas May 12, 2025 Supradeep S Madduri, Kristen R Szempruch, Dhruv J Patel et al. 1 citation
After pancreatic surgery for chronic pancreatitis, ketamine infusions provide pain relief comparable to epidural analgesia without increasing opioid use. In a cohort of 65 patients, those receiving ketamine (26 patients, mostly after total pancreatectomy with islet cell auto-transplantation) and those receiving epidural analgesia (39 patients, mostly after parenchyma-preserving pancreatic surgery) showed no significant difference in opioid consumption at discharge (median 75 vs 60 morphine milligram equivalents) or in pain scores. Adverse effects from ketamine were minimal, with hallucinations being the most common reaction (4 patients). Ketamine appears to be a safe and effective alternative for pain management when epidurals are not suitable.