New research indicates that ketamine doesn’t lower levels of pain or reduce the need for pain-killing opioid drugs in the days after an operation, though anesthesiologists often use it with those goals.
In addition, older surgery patients who receive it are more likely to experience hallucinations and nightmares in the recovery room and for several days following surgery. Past studies have even suggested ketamine might alleviate postsurgical delirium and confusion in older adults.
“In recent years, there’s been a big increase in the amount of ketamine given in the operating room because clinicians are trying to prevent pain after surgery without relying on opioid drugs,” says Michael S. Avidan, professor of anesthesiology and of surgery at Washington University in St. Louis and lead author of a new study published in the journal The Lancet.
