Pain Medicine for Wound Care Procedures

March 25, 2024 updated by: University of California, San Francisco

The Effectiveness of Small Doses of Ketamine With Morphine on Decreasing Pain Responses During Open Wound Care

This is a randomized double-blind study to determine if the administration of a small-dose of ketamine (an anesthetic)added to morphine (an opioid) contributes to reducing pain intensity during open wound care procedure (WCP)in patients who have had a traumatic injury and are in an Intensive Care Unit. Patients will be randomized to receive morphine plus saline (a placebo) or morphine plus ketamine before the WCP. The second time the patient is scheduled for WCP (no less than 24 hours), patients will be crossed over to receive the treatment they did not receive the first time. It is hypothesized that patients who receive the combination of morphine and ketamine will have better pain control during the procedure than patients who just receive morphine.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

An open wound care procedure causes pain and sometimes the use of medication such as morphine alone does not adequately help to alleviate pain during this procedure. This study is being done to learn if the administration of another medication named ketamine by the vein in addition to morphine is more effective in alleviating pain during the wound cleansing procedure than the administration of morphine alone. Patients will be eligible for the study if they are 21 years and older, have an open surgical or traumatic wound with a duration of no more than 10 days, had a wound pain intensity score more than 3 in a scale of 0 to 10 where 0 is no pain and 10 is the worst pain imaginable during a previous wound care procedure, and have an intravenous access.

A total of 50 patients with these same characteristics are expected to take part in this study. Patients who agree to take part in this study will, one day, receive receive an injection via the vein of morphine 0.05 mg per kilogram of their weight (maximum dose of 4 mg) and another of ketamine 0.25 mg per kilogram of their weight prior receiving the wound care procedure and, on the other day, will receive an injection via the vein of morphine 0.1 mg per kilogram of their weight (maximum dose of 8 mg) and another of saline prior receiving the wound care procedure. They will not be able to know if they receive ketamine or saline the first time or second time.

Ketamine is a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for anesthesia but not approved to provide analgesia (relieve pain). However, small doses of ketamine are used (out of its indications) in the clinical area to provide analgesia, and its analgesic properties have been studied by many researchers.

Before the wound care procedure subjects will be asked to rate their wound pain intensity at rest at that moment and in the past 24 hours (including "worst" and "average" pain), overall pain intensity at rest at this moment and "worst" and "average" in the past 24 hours using a 0 to 10 scale where 0 is no pain and 10 is the worst pain imaginable. They will be given a list of common words that might describe their pain, and a body outline to indicate where the pain is. In addition, they will be asked to rate their level of sleepiness using a 0 to 10 scale where 0 is not at all sleepy and 10 is extremely sleepy.

After removing the outer dressing, patients will be tested for pain sensitivity around the wound with a thin, short length of plastic (like a little straw), which will be pressed against their skin from the outside of the wound towards the wound and they will be asked to report a distinct change in perception. The first point where a "painful", "sore", or "sharper" feeling occurs will be marked in the skin to measure the distance of this mark to the wound. If no change in perception occurs, stimulation will be stopped 0.5 cm from the wound. This measure is experimental.

Immediately after the wound care procedure the following will be measured: (1) "worst" wound pain intensity experienced during the wound care procedure, (2) description of pain quality during the wound care procedure, (3) level of sleepiness, (4) side effects such as unpleasant sensation will be measured using a 0 to 10 scale, where 0 means no unpleasant sensation at all and 10 means extremely unpleasant sensation, and finally (5) pain sensitivity around the wound using a thin, short length of plastic.

The length of time needed to take part in this study will depend on how long the wound care procedure takes. The time could be approximately 45 minutes to 60 minutes (1 hour) per visit and 90 minutes (1½ hour) to 120 minutes (2 hours) in total for the study because 2 days are needed to complete the study.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

12

Phase

  • Phase 3

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

  • Puerto Rico
      • San Juan, Puerto Rico
        • Trauma Hospital Puerto Rico Medical Center
  • United States
    • California
      • San Francisco, California, United States, 94143-0610
        • University of California San Francisco

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

21 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adults patients (≥ 21 years) have to have an open wound with duration of no more than 10 days that requires wound care
  • be able to self-report their pain
  • had a pain intensity score > 3 during previous wound care procedure
  • has intravenous access

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with an injury that impairs sensation in the wound area according to a medical diagnosis
  • has an allergy to morphine or ketamine
  • has not received morphine previously
  • In addition, patients who are 65 years of age or older.

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: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: Triple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Morphine plus Ketamine, then Morphine plus Saline (placebo)
During the first wound care procedure, patients received morphine 0.05 mg/kg (a maximum dose of 4 mg) plus ketamine 0.25 mg/kg (MK). Then, during the second wound care procedure, patients received morphine 0.1 mg/kg (a maximum dose of 8 mg) plus saline (MS).
Drug: Morphine plus Ketamine
Morphine 0.05 mg/kg (maximum dose of 4 mg) IV plus Ketamine 0.25 mg/kg IV. Then, Morphine 0.1 mg/kg (maximum dose of 8 mg) IV plus Saline IV
Drug: Morphine plus Saline (placebo)
Morphine 0.1 mg/kg (maximum dose of 8 mg) IV plus Saline IV. Then, Morphine 0.05 mg/kg (maximum dose of 4 mg) IV plus Ketamine 0.25 mg/kg IV.
Placebo Comparator: Morphine plus Saline (placebo), then Morphine plus Ketamine
During the first wound care procedure, patients received morphine 0.1 mg/kg (a maximum dose of 8 mg) plus saline (MS). Then, during the second wound care procedure, patients received morphine 0.05 mg/kg (a maximum dose of 4mg) plus ketamine 0.25 mg/kg (MK)
Drug: Morphine plus Ketamine
Morphine 0.05 mg/kg (maximum dose of 4 mg) IV plus Ketamine 0.25 mg/kg IV. Then, Morphine 0.1 mg/kg (maximum dose of 8 mg) IV plus Saline IV
Drug: Morphine plus Saline (placebo)
Morphine 0.1 mg/kg (maximum dose of 8 mg) IV plus Saline IV. Then, Morphine 0.05 mg/kg (maximum dose of 4 mg) IV plus Ketamine 0.25 mg/kg IV.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Pain Intensity
Time Frame: Immediately after the wound care procedure
The degree of pain described by participants on a numeric rating scale of 0 to 10, where 0 = no pain and 10 = worst pain imaginable
Immediately after the wound care procedure

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Wound Pain Quality
Time Frame: Immediately after the procedure
Short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire. The questionnaire has 15 adjectives to describe the pain. Each is rated on a 4-point scale (i.e., none, mild, moderate, or severe. Total wound pain quality score can range from 0 to 45.
Immediately after the procedure

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of California, San Francisco

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Kathleen A Puntillo, RN, DNSc, Regents of the University of California, San Francisco

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.

General Publications

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

June 1, 2008

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2009

Study Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 18, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 18, 2008

First Posted (Estimated)

June 19, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 26, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 25, 2024

Last Verified

March 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • H2280-32187-01

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

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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