Ketamine is a rapid-acting anesthetic commonly used during surgical procedures in both animals and humans, as an experimental drug in the treatment of chronic pain, and as a probe for the study of the cause of schizophrenia. When used medically as an anesthetic it is administered as an intravenous (IV) solution, but when diverted to the illicit market it can be injected, snorted, smoked, or con...

BACKGROUND Ketamine has been showing high efficacy and rapid antidepressant effect. However, studies of ketamine infusion wash subjects out from prior antidepressants, which may be impractical in routine practice. In this study, we determined antidepressant response and remission to six consecutive ketamine infusions while maintaining stable doses of antidepressant regimen. We also examined the...

Background: Emergence agitation (EA) after sevoflurane anesthesia is common in children. When rapid intravenous induction of general anesthesia is indicated in a brief procedure, the induction agent can reduce the incidence of EA after sevoflurane anesthesia. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of intravenous induction with ketamine and propofol for reducing EA in children after s...

Ketamine may prevent postoperative hyperalgesia. In patients undergoing arthroscopic meniscectomy using general anesthesia, we tested whether a single intraoperative dose of ketamine enhanced postoperative analgesia and improved functional outcome compared with a typical multimodal analgesic regimen. After the induction of anesthesia, 50 patients were randomly assigned to ketamine (0.15 mg/kg I...

BACKGROUND Pain after arthroscopic shoulder surgery is often severe, and establishing a pain treatment regimen that does not delay discharge can be challenging. The reported ability of ketamine to prevent opioid-induced hyperalgesia has not been investigated in this particular setting. METHODS 300 adult patients scheduled for shoulder arthroscopy under general anesthesia were recruited for th...

Ketamine HCl is a rapidly acting general anesthetic with sedative and analgesic properties that has been reported to have favorable effects on the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems. The goal of this review is to determine the hemodynamic and pulmonary effects of continuous intravenous (IV) ketamine infusion in mechanically ventilated patients, and to determine whether sufficient evidence exi...

BACKGROUND In this randomized, double-blinded study, we investigated the preemptive effects of propofol, remifentanil or ketamine on post-operative pain scores and analgesic requirements in elective lower abdominal surgeries under general anesthesia during the first 24 h of post-operative period. MATERIALS AND METHODS Seventy five patients, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical statu...

Tumor necrosis factor(TNF ) is a crucial neuromodulator in the brain. TNF is involved in many physiological events including pain response and sleep. However, the interactions between TNF and anesthetics have not been elucidated yet. In the present study, we investigated the effects of four intracerebroventricular (ICV) doses (1, 10, and 100 pg, and 1 ng) and two intraperitoneal (IP) doses (10 ...

Purpose: To compare the effectiveness of post-operative pain management and associated adverse effects of ketamine and nefopam. Methods: In total, 78 American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade 1 and 2 patients who had undergone abdominal surgery were given 3 mg of intravenous (IV) morphine as post-operative analgesia. Patients who still had pain were randomly selected (n = 48) and separa...

Conventional pharmacologic treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) generally take several weeks to several months to have a clinically meaningful effect. This time lag to response constitutes a major burden for patients and contributes to increased morbidity and mortality. Two published studies in patients with MDD have now provided evidence for rapid and robust antidepressant efficacy o...