Podcast # 433: Geriatric Ketamine

Author: Michael Hunt, MD

Educational Pearls:

• Recent study compared ketamine to morphine in elderly patient
• Ketamine (IV dose 0.3 mg /kg) provided equivalent pain control to morphine  (IV dose 0.1 mg / kg)
• However, etamine group had much higher rate of side effects, including psychoperceptual
• A lower does of 0.1 mg / kg given intravenously over 15 minutes might be a better option to start in the elderly population - you can always add more! 

References

Motov S, Mann S, Drapkin J, Butt M, Likourezos A, Yetter E, Brady J, Rothberger N, Gohel A, Flom P, Mai M, Fromm C, Marshall J. Intravenous subdissociative-dose ketamine versus morphine for acute geriatric pain in the Emergency Department: A randomized controlled trial. Am J Emerg Med. 2019 Feb;37(2):220-227. doi: 10.1016/j.ajem.2018.05.030. Epub 2018 May 16. PubMed PMID: 29807629.

 Summarized and edited by Erik Verzemnieks, MD