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Triple Therapeutic Effects of Ketamine in Prehospital Settings: Systematic Review

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Abstract

Purpose of Review

Ketamine is a unique drug that, remarkably, provides three clinical benefits of analgesia, assisting intubation and sedation. It has minimal adverse events and may have major advantages for trauma patients and those with violent behaviours in prehospital environments. Twenty-one full-text articles were retrieved from 1119 journal abstracts in the databases PubMed, ScienceDirect and Taylor & Francis Group, and the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies from the Effective Public Health Practice Project was used to assess their quality.

Recent Findings

Findings clearly demonstrated significant pain reduction with rapid onset for trauma patients, and adequate prehospital sedation in profoundly agitated patients was achieved after administration of ketamine, similar to other drugs. Nevertheless, there was inconclusive evidence about the efficacy of ketamine as an induction agent for endotracheal intubation because of the limited number of journal articles, their weak quality and high complication rates.

Summary

Although this review could not demonstrate triple benefits of ketamine use in the prehospital setting, it showed that ketamine has the potential to provide a range of clinical benefits in situations that paramedics deal with on daily basis.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Rural and Remote Health, Division of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia

    Nualnong Wongtongkam

  2. School of Health, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia

    Margaret E. Adams

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  1. Nualnong Wongtongkam
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Correspondence to Nualnong Wongtongkam.

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Wongtongkam, N., Adams, M.E. Triple Therapeutic Effects of Ketamine in Prehospital Settings: Systematic Review. Curr Emerg Hosp Med Rep 8, 122–132 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40138-020-00215-4

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