Low dose ketamine: an ideal supplementary anaesthesia for spinal block

In a double blind clinical trial 100 adult patients were randomly divided into 2 groups. In group I after spinal block slow injection of diazepam (0.1 mg/kg) was followed by placebo (0.5 mg/kg as bolus and 0.5 mg/kg/hour in infusion). In group II patients, after spinal block slow injection of diazepam (0.1 mg/kg) was followed by injection of ketamine (0.5 mg/kg as bolus and 0.5 mg/kg/hour as infusion). Low dose of ketamine in combination with diazepam significantly improves quality of anaesthesia, gives better cardiovascular stability without significant increase in complication rate and significantly improves patients' acceptance for the technique.