Ketamine Infusion
What is it?
A ketamine infusion entails having an intravenous line started in one of our clinics and has ketamine infused into their blood for 30-60 minutes at a controlled rate specific to the patient. Patients are monitored during the infusion process.
Ketamine is primarily used as a dissociative anesthetic agent. It has long been used in hospital and emergency settings to provide analgesia in acute pain situations (burns, fractures and other trauma, postoperative pain), but in recent years it has been increasingly used as an intravenous infusion for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), neuropathic pain, and other intractable chronic pain states.
Ketamine has effects beyond analgesia, and is used for treatment-resistant unipolar depression and suicidal ideation. Thus, it is possible that improved mood may be an important factor contributing to improved pain scores in patients who receive ketamine for chronic pain.
Ketamine infusions may be used for many types of chronic pain, but are particularly useful for neuropathic pain states such as polyneuropathy or complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS).
Other conditions ketamine infusions can be useful for:
- Centralized Thalamic pain (Post-stroke syndrome)
- Chronic headaches
- Post-amputation pain (phantom limb syndrome)
- Fibromyalgia
- Cancer pain
- Trigeminal neuralgia and chronic facial pain