Survey of administration of intravenous ketamine for perioperative pain management in Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

Ketamine is an N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist approved for use in anaesthesia, with analgesic properties. Despite publication of numerous trials and expert guidelines on its use for pain management, administration of ketamine as part of multimodal perioperative analgesia remains ‘off-label’. We conducted an online, prospective survey of ANZCA Fellows, exploring current prescribing practices of intravenous ketamine for perioperative analgesia. We surveyed 2000 Fellows and received 806 responses. The factors mostly likely to influence their administration of perioperative ketamine included pre-existing chronic pain, and heavy or multiple opioid use by patients preoperatively. Amongst..