Microadministration of ketamine during labor and delivery of Nigerian women

Carefully controlled intravenous administration of ketamine produced excellent analgesia and dissociative sleep in all patients in the active phase of labor. The introduction to delivery interval was significantly shortened (3.6 vs 6 hours) in our general population. Of the 50 patients studied, 49 were unable to remember if contractions were painful and 80% experienced and narrated dreams. The auditory component was consistently intact in 82% of the cases; 78% described the total experience as pleasant, while the rest found it unpleasant or uncertain. The one-minute Apgar score of 6.8 was not significantly different from that of the general population.