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Published on: June 2, 2015
[Prevention of psychedelic side effects associated with low dose continuous intravenous ketamine infusion]
Francis Remerand1, Claude Couvret, Xavier Pourrat
1Groupement d'Anesthésie Réanimation, Hôpital Trousseau, CHU de Tours, Tours, France. fremerand@chu-tours.fr
Objective:
Continuous low dose infusion of intravenous ketamine for postoperative analgesia was often associated with frightening acute psychodysleptic experiences in our patients. We hypothesized they were due to boluses of ketamine accumulated in the infusion line. We evaluated on two successive groups the impact of perfusion line modifications on psychodysleptic side effects occurrence.
Methods:
We compared a reference historic group (in which ketamine line was connected to perfusion line) to a second prospective group (in which ketamine line was connected to the venous catheter via an unidirectional valve).
Results:
Psychodysleptic experiences occurrence decreased from 4 patients of 26 (15%) to 2 of 116 (2%, p = 0.01). Moreover, these experiences were no longer associated with severe anxious symptoms like near death experiences.
Conclusion:
An unidirectional valve must be considered to limit the occurrence of low dose intravenous ketamine infusion associated psychedelic side effects, during postoperative analgesia.
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