Can ketamine administration prevent intubation in patients who cannot comply with NIV due to agitation?

In patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with acute respiratory failure, non-invasive mechanical ventilation (NIMV) is applied when conventional oxygen support is not sufficient. Patients who are agitated often have very low NIMV compliance and a transition to invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) is often required. To avoid IMV, a suitable sedative agent can be utilized. The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between ketamine administration to patients who are non-compliant with NIMV due to agitation and the outcome of their intubation.

This retrospective study included patients with acute respiratory failure who were admitted to the ED from 2021 to 2022 and used Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale (RASS) to identify agitation level of patients. The relationship between ketamine administration in this patient group and NIMV compliance and intubation rate was evaluated.

A total of 81 patients, including 35 (43.2%) men and 46 (56.8%) women, were included in the study. Of these patients, 46 (56.8%) were intubated despite ketamine administration, while 35 (43.2%) were compliant with NIMV and were not intubated. When evaluating the RASS, which shows the agitation levels of the patients, the non-intubated group was found to be 2.17 ± 0.68, while the intubated group was 2.66 ± 0.73, and it was statistically significant that the NIMV intubated group was higher (p = 0.003).

This study showed that agitation can impair NIMV compliance in patients with acute respiratory failure. However, a significant proportion of this patient group can be avoided through IMV with proper sedative agents.