• Sergey Motov, Bradley Rockoff, Victor Cohen, Illya Pushkar, Antonios Likourezos, Courtney McKay, Emil Soleyman-Zomalan, Peter Homel, Victoria Terentiev, and Christian Fromm.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY. Electronic address: smotov@maimonidesmed.org.
• Ann Emerg Med. 2015 Sep 1; 66 (3): 222-229.e1.

Study ObjectiveWe assess and compare the analgesic efficacy and safety of subdissociative intravenous-dose ketamine with morphine in emergency department (ED) patients.MethodsThis was a prospective, randomized, double-blind trial evaluating ED patients aged 18 to 55 years and experiencing moderate to severe acute abdominal, flank, or musculoskeletal pain, defined as a numeric rating scale score greater than or equal to 5. Patients were randomized to receive ketamine at 0.3 mg/kg or morphine at 0.1 mg/kg by intravenous push during 3 to 5 minutes. Evaluations occurred at 15, 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes. Primary outcome was reduction in pain at 30 minutes. Secondary outcome was the incidence of rescue analgesia at 30 and 60 minutes.ResultsForty-five patients per group were enrolled in the study. The primary change in mean pain scores was not significantly different in the ketamine and morphine groups: 8.6 versus 8.5 at baseline (mean difference 0.1; 95% confidence interval -0.46 to 0.77) and 4.1 versus 3.9 at 30 minutes (mean difference 0.2; 95% confidence interval -1.19 to 1.46; P=.97). There was no difference in the incidence of rescue fentanyl analgesia at 30 or 60 minutes. No statistically significant or clinically concerning changes in vital signs were observed. No serious adverse events occurred in either group. Patients in the ketamine group reported increased minor adverse effects at 15 minutes post-drug administration.ConclusionSubdissociative intravenous ketamine administered at 0.3 mg/kg provides analgesic effectiveness and apparent safety comparable to that of intravenous morphine for short-term treatment of acute pain in the ED.Copyright © 2015 American College of Emergency Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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