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Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Chinese Herbal Retention Enema for the Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis
Published on: May 16, 2025
Pain management in fulminating ulcerative colitis
Michelle White1, Neil Shah, Keith Lindley
1United Bristol Health Care Trust, Bristol, UK. mcwdoc@doctors.org.uk
Background:
Toxic megacolon is a life-threatening complication of ulcerative colitis (UC) characterized by systemic toxicity, loss of blood per rectum and severe pain. Pain management is challenging in these patients because nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may exacerbate bleeding and opioids are contraindicated because they adversely affect bowel peristalsis causing an increased risk of colonic perforation.
Methods:
We describe three episodes of fulminating UC in two children in whom ketamine analgesia was used. Our protocol for a low-dose continuous ketamine infusion with either nurse-controlled analgesia (NCA) or patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) bolus administration is presented and a review of the literature regarding the use of ketamine analgesia in children is discussed.
Results:
Low-dose ketamine N/PCA with a continuous background infusion provided satisfactory analgesia and none of our children reported adverse effects.
Conclusions:
We have demonstrated the safe and effective use of ketamine analgesia in children with toxic megacolon, a condition in which the child is in severe pain and morphine is contraindicated.
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