[Has ketamine preemptive analgesic effect in patients undergoing abdominal hysterectomy?]

The aim of this study was to determine if preemptive use of the NMDA receptor antogonist ketamine decreases postoperative pain in patients undergoing abdominal hystrectomy. A total of 60 patients admitted for total abdominal hysterectomy were included in this study after the approval of the ethic committee, and the patients were randomly classified into three groups. After standart general anaesthesia, before or after incision patients received bolus saline or ketamine. Group S received only saline while Group Kpre received ketamine 0.4 mg/kg before incision and saline after incision, and Group Kpost received saline before incision and 0.4 mg/kg ketamine after incision. Postoperatif analgesia was maintained with i.v. PCA morphine. Pain scores were assessed with Vizüal Analog Scale (VAS), Verbal Rating Scale (VRS) at 1., 2, 3., 4., 8., 12. ve 24. hours postoperatively. First analgesic requirement time, morphine consumption and side effects were recorded. There were no significant differences between groups with respect to VAS / VRS scores, the time for first analgesic dose, and morphine consumption ( p>0.05). Patients in Group S had significantly lower sedation scores than either of the ketamine treated groups ( p<0.05). In conclusion, a single dose of ketamin had no preemptive analgesic effect in patients undergoing abdominal hysterectomy, but further investigation is needed for different operation types and dose regimens.