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Khedija Zaouche, Mohamed Kilani, Ramla Baccouche, Radhia Boubaker, Hamida Maghraoui

La Tunisie medicale November 5, 2024 DOI: 10.62438/tunismed.v102i11.4574 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed
Sample size 120
Population Adults over 18 years old with severe pain (NRS ≥6) in the emergency department
Interventions Morphine Ketamine
Dose 10 mg morphine titration; 30 mg ketamine bolus
Duration 10 minutes
Topics Ketamine
Keywords Analgesia Emergencies Opioids Pain management Emergency medicine Analgesics Ketamine therapy Opioid alternatives
Citations 1
Key findings Low-dose ketamine is non-inferior to morphine for rapid analgesia in severe pain, though it causes more adverse effects.

Abstract

Severe pain is a therapeutic emergency that can be life-threatening by its location, its repercussions or the misdiagnosis it can cause. To investigate the efficacy of analgesia by morphine versus that by low-dose ketamine in severe pain in emergency department. We conducted a randomized open study. We included patients over 18 years-old who consulted for severe pain defined by numeric rating scale (NRS) ≥6. Patients of M group received a titration of 10 mg morphine while those of LDK group, received a bolus of 30 mg of ketamine. The primary endpoint was obtaining a NRS of less than 4 within 10 minutes. We included 120 patients, 66 in the M group and 54 in the LDK group. The mean baseline NRS was 8.8 ± 1.3 in the M group and 8.6 ± 1.4 in the LDK group (p₌ 0.7). At 10 minutes, the same number of patients in both groups achieved a NRS less than 4 (p = 0.09). However, the mean NRS was significantly lower in the LDK group (p = 0.008). More adverse effects were noted in the LDK group (p <10-3). Low-dose ketamine appears to be non-inferior to morphine in achieving effective analgesia for severe pain in the emergency department.

Comparable studies

Other randomized controlled trials on ketamine, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Subanesthetic Effects of the Noncompetitive NMDA Antagonist, Ketamine, in Humans Healthy human subjects recruited from the community 1994 Randomized controlled trial n = 19
Antidepressant Efficacy of Ketamine in Treatment-Resistant Major Depression: A Two-Site Randomized Controlled Trial Patients with treatment-resistant major depression experiencing a major depressive episode 2013 Randomized controlled trial n = 73
Remifentanil-induced Postoperative Hyperalgesia and Its Prevention with Small-dose Ketamine Patients undergoing major abdominal surgery 2005 Randomized controlled trial n = 75
Efficacy of Intravenous Ketamine for Treatment of Chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Patients with chronic PTSD related to a range of trauma exposures 2014 Randomized controlled trial n = 41
Ketamine-Induced Deficits in Auditory and Visual Context-Dependent Processing in Healthy Volunteers Healthy volunteers 2000 Single-blind placebo-controlled study n = 20

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