Ketamine

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic and analgesic used for induction and maintenance of general anesthesia, sedation, and as an analgesic.

Ketamine

Clinical data
Pharmacodynamics
Pharmacokinetics
Physical and chemical data
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Stuart van der Greeff

Uses

Induction of Anesthesia

Ketamine is often chosen for induction of anesthesia in patients who are or are expected to become hemodynamically unstable as it generally maintains or increases heart rate, blood pressure, and cerebral perfusion through stimulation of catecholamine release. However, unstable patients with impaired catecholamine release or response may still become hypotensive following induction.

- Asthma

- Emergency semi-conscious intubation

	Adult	Pediatric	Administration Notes
Induction of anesthesia	IV 0.5 to 2 mg/kg 0.5 to 1 mg/kg in patients with shock IM 4 to 6 mg/kg	IV 1 to 3 mg/kg IM 5 to 10 mg/kg
Adjunct during general anesthesia	Various regimens exist: - 0.5 mg/kg bolus at incision, followed by 0.25 mg/kg/hour infusion - 0.25 to 0.35 mg/kg bolus, followed by up to 1 mg/kg/hour infusion	Supplemental doses of one-half to the full induction dose as needed
Sedation	0.1 to 0.5 mg/kg bolus, followed by a 0.2 to 0.5 mg/kg/hour infusion
Analgesia

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