Another intravenous anesthetic has made its way into the news – ketamine!  Also known by the street name Special K, ketamine has been featured in a brief article in this month’s People magazine.  It is an anesthetic agent with potent pain relieving effects and is associated with the negative side effects of dysphoria and hallucinations.  It has gained attention recently for its controversial use in treating CRPS or Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (formerly known as RSD or Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy). Since the use of ketamine in treating CRPS is not approved by the FDA,  patients with this syndrome are traveling to Mexico and Europe to be treated.

The science behind this controversial treatment is that ketamine in large doses puts the patient in an anesthesia-induced coma and resets the circuitry in the brain that is thought to be responsible for the pain syndrome. Patients are kept unresponsive and mechanically ventilated for days while on the intravenous drip.

The controversy exists because although some patients have had good outcomes, like the patient in the People article, there have been reports of complications including pneumonias causing long term hospitalization as well as a report of paralysis.  There is a real moral dilemma facing both patient and doctor.  Is it worth the risk?  This is something doctors face daily regarding their patients’ care – is the benefit worth the risk for a given procedure or treatment? And with all the news about Michael Jackson’s misuse of the IV anesthetic propofol, one has to wonder how other drugs are being used and misused.

Click for more info on CRPS and ketamine.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 8:16 pm and is filed under In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.