Ketamine use

[g8rlimey]

Just wondering if any of you guys have any experience with ketamine as an anesthetic.

The reason I ask is b/c I was recently in a unit that was using it for a extremely agitated patient and it was working very well, but I haven't heard much about it except as a recreational---Special K. Isn't it used in Vet Med as a tranq. for large animals?

[aus nurse]

Originally posted by kmchugh

However, it can cause hallucinations, or what I like to call "in flight movies."

Kevin McHugh

:chuckle:chuckle :chuckle

[kmchugh]

Last night reminded me of another time I find Ketamine to be particularly useful. We were doing a hip nailing on a man in his 80's. Fell and fractured his hip in his front yard, lay in the snow for about an hour and a half before being found. Awake, alert, feeling "like I got a cold coming on," very coorifice lung sounds. Primary candidate for a spinal anesthetic. To be most effective, he needed to be rolled onto the affected side to place the spinal. That hurts, to say the least. Gave the man 50 mg Ketamine before starting the spinal. Got some analgesic effect, and complete dissociative state. He tolerated the spinal quite well.

Kevin McHugh

[BRobison]

in the olden days, when I practiced, we liked Ketamine for hip pinnings in those elderly folks that seem to fall out of bed in the hospital or nursing home and fracture hips. Worked great.