Low-dose ketamine as an adjuvant for pain control in a cancer patient: a case report

Abstract

patients on these medications endure exacerbating side effects and complications. Additionally, due to opioid tolerance, or reduced responsiveness, 10-fold increases in opioid doses are common in chronic pain management (2). This rapid increase in dosages is problematic due to the narrow therapeutic range of opioids and their high-risk side effects, such as nausea/vomiting, constipation, sedation, drowsiness, and neurological effects such as neuroexcitation, myoclonus, and urinary retention (3,4). The need for non-opioid treatment options for patients undergoing acute, chronic and obstinate pain is of great importance; one alternative is low-dose ketamine (LDK) infusion.