Further experience with 2100 consecutive ketamine administrations: newer indications and restrictions

Two thousand one hundred consecutive administrations of ketamine as an anaesthetic agent are reviewed. On the basis of the experience described, the authors assess that this agent could be used with safety in the average patient presenting for surgery and that it would be likely to suffice as the sole anaesthetic agent in 40% of such cases but would require supplementation by other anaesthetic agents in the remaining 60% of cases. They recommend it as being particularly useful in children submitting to dental surgery as it can be used without sedative premedication and permits of rapid recovery.