Ketamine Improves Post-Thoracotomy Analgesia

February 28, 2008 updated by: Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center
Thoracotomy for lung tumor or for minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass (MIDCAB) surgery, may be associated with debilitating pain. Ketamine was shown to enhance opioid antinociception and prevent opioid resistance. We hypothesize that ketamine given with morphine would lower morphine consumption and narcotic related side effects after thoracotomy and provide superior analgesia to morphine given alone.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Detailed Description

We planned a prospective, randomomized, double blind study of 2 pain management protocols in consecutive patients undergoing thoracotomy for MIDCAB or lung tumor resection over a 6 month period. After patients emerged from a standardized general anesthetic and when objectively awake and complaining of pain >5/10 on a visual analogue pain scale, they were connected to an intravenous patient controlled analgesia regimen. The regimen was assigned randomly to be either morphine alone (1.5 mg per dose, lockout interval of 7 minutes) or morphine plus ketamine (1.0 mg morphine plus 5 mg ketamine per dose, same lockout interval). Rescue diclofenac was available to both groups. Follow-up lasted 4 hours.

We planned to monitor and compare pain scores, wakefulness scores, hemodynamic and respiratory parameters as well as total morphine consumption and incidence of side effects and complications. All monitoring and recording was done by blinded nurses and intensive care physicians.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

44

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

      • Tel Aviv, Israel, 64238
        • Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Consecutive patients scheduled for elective minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass (MIDCAB) or for lung resection via anterolateral thoracotomy during a 6-month period (Sep 2001-March 2002)

Exclusion Criteria:

Exclusion criteria were:

  • American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical class ≥3, Emergency operations,
  • Q-wave myocardial infarct occurring during the previous 3 weeks, or poor left ventricular function (e.g., ejection fraction [EF] <30% by echocardiography or angiography).

Other exclusion criteria were:

  • A body mass index >35 kg/m2,
  • Past or current neuropathy or psychological disturbances,
  • The use of centrally active drugs,
  • Chronic liver or renal failure requiring dialysis,
  • A FEV1/FVC <70%,
  • Allergy to ketamine, morphine or non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs),
  • Clotting abnormalities,
  • A platelets count <70000/mm3,
  • A white blood count <3000>14000/mm3,
  • Uncontrolled diabetes mellitus or fasting blood glucose >250 g/dl,
  • Evidence of sepsis or infection up to one week prior to randomization.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Quadruple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: morphine only
standard analgesia protocol
intravenous patient controlled analgesia, standard protocol
Experimental: morphine ketamine
alterantive regimen for intravenous patient controlled analgesia
low dose ketamine added to 2/3 standard dose of morphine
Other Names:
  • ketalar

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
pain score
Time Frame: 4 hours
4 hours

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
hemodynamic and respiratory parameters, side effects
Time Frame: 4 hours
4 hours

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Avi A Weinbroum, MD, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

September 1, 2001

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2002

Study Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2002

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 8, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 28, 2008

First Posted (Estimate)

February 29, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

February 29, 2008

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 28, 2008

Last Verified

February 1, 2008

More Information

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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