Epidural Ketamine. A. Preliminary Report

Epidural ketamine for postoperative analgesia

“…In some patients the duration of analgesia bore little relation to the dose given. This variability in response was more marked in patients in Group II and this observation has been reported by Mankowitz et al 9 although they used a smaller dose. They administered 4 mg ketamine in 10 ml five per cent dextrose epidurally to seven patients suffering from chronic pain and noted that the duration of analgesia varied from 30 minutes to more than six hours.…”

“…Although Mankowitz et al 9 did not report any pain on injection in their patients, we had four patients in Group II and III who complained of transient burning pain in the back during injection of ketamine into the epidural space. Pain was not severe enough to withhold injection.…”

“…The demonstration of the safety of intrathecal ketamine with preservatives in baboons by BrockUtne et al 8 led Makowitz et al 9 to administer ketamine with preservative into the extradural space to humans suffering from chronic pain, in an uncontrolled study. This paper reports a prospective randomized study with two different doses of epidural ketamine to determine the analgesic and side effects of this technique while employing intramuscular (IM) ketamine as a control, in patients undergoing gallbladder surgery.…”

Ketamine: an update on the first twenty-five years of clinical experience

“…93 Following this, there was a report of patients with intractable cancer pain, who obtained relief lasting 30 minutes to over six hours following epidural ketamine. 94 The series of clinical studies of epidural ketamine that followed are difficult to interpret because many of the authors' conclusions are based on uncontrolled experimental data. lslas et al claimed potent analgesia from 4 mg of epidural ketamine in a study of 50 patients.…”

Effects of ketamine hydrochloride (preservative free) and fentanyl citrate added to low dose hyperbaric bupivacaine for sub-arachnoid block in lower uterine caesarian section – a comperative study

“…This result is consistent in terms of level of sensory block with the study conducted by Kathirvel et al 13 and Biswash et al 6 . 18 . In our study no patient in any groups experienced respiratory depression.…”