PAIN MANAGEMENT AND SEDATION/ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Intravenous Subdissociative-Dose Ketamine Versus Morphine

for Analgesia in the Emergency Department: A Randomized
Controlled Trial
Sergey Motov, MD*; Bradley Rockoff, MD; Victor Cohen, PharmD; Illya Pushkar, MPH; Antonios Likourezos, MA, MPH;
Courtney McKay, PharmD; Emil Soleyman-Zomalan, MD; Peter Homel, PhD; Victoria Terentiev, BA; Christian Fromm, MD
*Corresponding Author. E-mail: smotov@maimonidesmed.org, Twitter: @smotovmd.

Study objective: We assess and compare the analgesic efficacy and safety of subdissociative intravenous-dose
ketamine with morphine in emergency department (ED) patients.

Methods: This was a prospective, randomized, double-blind trial evaluating ED patients aged 18 to 55 years and
experiencing moderate to severe acute abdominal, flank, or musculoskeletal pain, defined as a numeric rating
scale score greater than or equal to 5. Patients were randomized to receive ketamine at 0.3 mg/kg or morphine at
0.1 mg/kg by intravenous push during 3 to 5 minutes. Evaluations occurred at 15, 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes.
Primary outcome was reduction in pain at 30 minutes. Secondary outcome was the incidence of rescue analgesia
at 30 and 60 minutes.

Results: Forty-five patients per group were enrolled in the study. The primary change in mean pain scores was not
significantly different in the ketamine and morphine groups: 8.6 versus 8.5 at baseline (mean difference 0.1; 95%
confidence interval
0.46 to 0.77) and 4.1 versus 3.9 at 30 minutes (mean difference 0.2; 95% confidence interval

1.19 to 1.46; P¼.97). There was no difference in the incidence of rescue fentanyl analgesia at 30 or 60 minutes. No
statistically significant or clinically concerning changes in vital signs were observed. No serious adverse events occurred
in either group. Patients in the ketamine group reported increased minor adverse effects at 15 minutes post–drug
administration.

Conclusion: Subdissociative intravenous ketamine administered at 0.3 mg/kg provides analgesic effectiveness
and apparent safety comparable to that of intravenous morphine for short-term treatment of acute pain in the ED.
[Ann Emerg Med. 2015;-:1-8.]

Please see page XX for the Editor’s Capsule Summary of this article.

0196-0644/$-see front matter

Copyright © 2015 by the American College of Emergency Physicians.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annemergmed.2015.03.004

INTRODUCTION airway reflexes, spontaneous respiration, and cardiopulmonary

Background stability.3-5
The provision of adequate, safe, and timely analgesia is a
core component of patient care in the emergency Importance
department (ED). Ketamine is a noncompetitive N- In subdissociative doses, ketamine has been shown to
methyl-D-aspartate and glutamate receptor antagonist that confer potent, opioid-sparing effects and to be effective in
decreases central sensitization, “wind-up” phenomena, and providing analgesia for pain that is poorly controlled by
pain memory.1,2 As a phencyclidine-like dissociative agent, opioids in a variety of settings outside of the ED.6-9
ketamine possesses a number of pharmacologic Emerging data on the use of subdissociative-dose ketamine
characteristics useful to the emergency physician. At doses as a single agent in out-of-hospital and austere settings,
commonly used for procedural sedation (1 to 1.5 mg/kg), where it has compared favorably to morphine, support a
ketamine produces a trancelike cataleptic state, whereas at role for ketamine in the analgesic armamentarium of
subdissociative doses (0.1 to 0.6 mg/kg; most commonly emergency physicians. Two retrospective studies
0.3 mg/kg) it maintains potent analgesic and amnestic demonstrated that subdissociative-dose ketamine in the
effects that are accompanied by preservation of protective dosing range of 0.1 to 0.6 mg/kg, when administered as an

Volume -, no. - : - 2015 Annals of Emergency Medicine 1

Ketamine Versus Morphine for Analgesia in the Emergency Department Motov et al

Editor’s Capsule Summary Study Setting and Selection of Participants

The study facility is a 711-bed community teaching
What is already known on this topic hospital with an annual ED census of more than 120,000
Ketamine is a potent analgesic. visits. Patient screening, enrollment, and data collection were
What question this study addressed performed by a study investigator (B.R., I.P., and V.T.). ED
pharmacy investigators maintained the randomization list,
Is ketamine more or less effective than morphine in
which was generated before commencement of the study,
treating acute pain?
prepared the medication, and delivered it to the nurse caring
What this study adds to our knowledge for the study participant in a blinded manner.
In this trial, 90 adults with acute pain were A convenience sample of patients was enrolled between
randomized in the emergency department in double- June 2013 and May 2014. Enrollment occurred at various
blind fashion to receive either ketamine at 0.3 mg/kg times of the day when both a study investigator was
or morphine at 0.1 mg/kg intravenously. Pain score available for patient enrollment and an ED pharmacist was
reductions and the proportion of patients with available for medication preparation.
complete pain relief were statistically similar between The study included patients aged 18 to 55 years who
groups, with reasonable power to exclude clinically presented to the ED with acute abdominal, flank, back, or
important differences. There were no serious adverse musculoskeletal pain score of 5 or more on a standard 11-
events, although ketamine subjects more frequently point (0 to 10) numeric rating scale and required opioid
experienced dizziness and disorientation. analgesia, as determined by the treating attending
physician.13,14 Acute pain was defined as having an onset
How this is relevant to clinical practice within 7 days. Exclusion criteria included pregnancy,
This small but well-designed trial suggests generally breast-feeding, altered mental status, allergy to morphine or
similar analgesic equivalence between ketamine at ketamine, weight less than 46 kg or greater than 115 kg,
0.3 mg/kg and morphine at 0.1 mg/kg intravenously. unstable vital signs (systolic blood pressure <90 or
>180 mm Hg, pulse rate <50 or >150 beats/min, and
respiration rate <10 or >30 breaths/min), and medical
history of acute head or eye injury, seizure, intracranial
hypertension, chronic pain, renal or hepatic insufficiency,
adjunct to opioid analgesics, significantly reduced pain
alcohol or drug abuse, psychiatric illness, or recent (4 hours
reported by patients in the ED.10,11
before) opioid use.
Each patient was approached by a study investigator for
Goals of This Investigation acquisition of written informed consent and Health
In our study, we hypothesize that a subdissociative Insurance Portability and Accountability Act authorization
dose of ketamine administered as a single agent at after being evaluated by the treating emergency physician
0.3 mg/kg will provide relief similar to that of a standard and determined to meet study eligibility criteria.
dose of morphine at 0.1 mg/kg for acute moderate to In situations in which English was not the participant’s
severe pain in the ED setting. The primary outcome used primary language, a staff interpreter or licensed telephone
to test our hypothesis is the comparative reduction in interpreter was used. Baseline pain score was determined
participants’ pain scores at 30 minutes from medication with an 11-point numeric rating scale (0 to 10), described
administration. to the patient as “no pain” being 0 and “the worst pain
imaginable” being 10. A patient was eligible for enrollment
MATERIALS AND METHODS if a baseline numeric rating scale score of 5 or greater was
Study Design reported. A study investigator then recorded the patient’s
This was a prospective, randomized, double-blind trial body weight and baseline vital signs.
comparing the safety and efficacy of subdissociative The on-duty ED pharmacist prepared 0.3 mg/kg of
intravenous-dose ketamine with intravenous morphine for ketamine or 0.1 mg/kg of morphine in 10 mL of normal
acute pain in the ED. This study was approved by the saline solution according to the predetermined
Maimonides Medical Center institutional review board and randomization list, which was created in SPSS (version
registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01835262). The 19.0; IBM Corp, Armonk, NY) with block randomization
study was conducted and is reported according to the every 10 participants, up to 90. The medication was
Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials Group.12 delivered to the treating nurse in a blinded fashion and was

2 Annals of Emergency Medicine Volume -, no. - : - 2015

Motov et al Ketamine Versus Morphine for Analgesia in the Emergency Department

administered by intravenous push during 3 to 5 minutes. latter method uses data at all time points and provides a
The preparing pharmacist, research manager, and more reliable estimate of the SD. For categorical outcomes
statistician were the only members of the team with (eg, complete resolution of pain), a c2 or Fisher’s exact test
knowledge of the study arm to which the participant was was used to compare rates for categorical outcomes at 30
randomized, leaving the providers, participants, and data- minutes. Percentage differences and 95% confidence limits
collecting research team blinded to the medication received. between the treatment groups were calculated for all time
Study investigators recorded pain scores, vital signs, and points. P<.05 was used to denote statistical significance.
adverse effects at 15, 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes. If In accordance with the validation by Bijur et al15 of a
patients reported a pain numeric rating scale score of 5 or verbally administered rating scale of acute pain in the ED
greater and requested additional pain relief, fentanyl 1 m/kg and the comparison by Holdgate et al16 of verbal and visual
was administered as a rescue analgesic. Blinding of the pain scales, we assumed a primary outcome consisting of a
patient, research team, and clinical staff was strictly minimal clinically meaningful difference of 1.3 between the
maintained by the on-duty ED pharmacist. ketamine and morphine groups at the 30-minute pain
All data recorded on data collection sheets, including assessment. Assuming an SD of 3.0, a power analysis
sex, demographics, medical history, and vital signs, were determined that a repeated-measures ANOVA with a
entered into SPSS (version 19.0; IBM Corp) by the sample size of 90 (45 in each group) provided at least 83%
research manager. Development of the randomization list, power to detect a difference of at least 1.3 at 30 minutes (as
confirmation of written consent acquisition for all well as at any other interval postbaseline), with an a¼.05.
participants, and statistical analyses were conducted by the
research manager and statistician, who were independent of RESULTS
any data collection. Ninety patients (45 ketamine and 45 morphine) were
enrolled in the study. The patients’ mean age was 35 and
Outcome Measures 36 years, respectively (SD¼10 for both groups); 67% and
The primary outcome was comparative reduction of 62% were women, respectively. There were no differences
numeric rating scale pain scores between recipients of between the groups in terms of demographic characteristics
ketamine and morphine at 30 minutes. The secondary or baseline vital signs, pain scores, or chief complaint
outcome was need for rescue analgesia at either 30 or 60 (Table 1). The patient flow diagram is illustrated in
minutes. Vital sign changes and adverse events were also Figure 1.
analyzed. As shown in Table 2, patients’ reported pain scores at
time 0 were similar in the 2 groups: the mean difference in
pain numeric rating scale score for ketamine versus
Primary Data Analysis morphine was 0.1 (95% confidence interval [CI] –0.46
Data analyses included frequency distributions, paired t to 0.77). Participants received an average dose of either
test to assess a difference in pain scores within each group,
and independent-sample t test to assess differences in pain
Table 1. Demographics and clinical characteristics of patients at
scores between the 2 groups at the various intervals (SPSS,
enrollment.
version 19.0; IBM Corp). Mixed-model linear regression
Group
(SAS, version 9.1; SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC) was used
to compare changes in pain numeric rating scale across time Characteristics Ketamine Morphine Difference (95% CI)
points. This compensated for participants lost to follow-up No. of patients 45 45
and allowed all patients’ data to be analyzed on an intention- Age, mean (SD), y 35 (9.5) 36 (10.5)
1 (
5.1 to 3.3)
Sex
to-treat principle. A mean contrast test based on the mixed- Female, No. (%) 30 (67) 28 (62) 5 (
16 to 25)
model linear regression results compared the primary Weight, mean (SD), kg 74 (15.9) 78 (16.6)
4 (
11.4 to 2.2)
outcome difference at 30 minutes relative to time 0. The Blood pressure, mean (SD), mm Hg
Systolic 125 (18.2) 127 (16.1)
2 (
8.8 to 5.6)
95% confidence limits for the mean difference in numeric Diastolic 76 (13.2) 74 (12.7) 2 (
3.6 to 7.3)
rating scale pain score for the ketamine versus morphine Pulse rate, beats/min 79 (14.8) 79 (15.0) 0 (
6.8 to 5.6)
groups at each time point were calculated with 2 estimate Source of pain, No. (%)
Abdominal 33 (73) 31 (69) 4 (
15 to 24)
methods for the pooled SD. One method was based on the
Flank 7 (16) 9 (20)
4 (
21 to 12)
pooled SD from the bivariate t test comparison at each Other* 5 (11) 5 (11) 0 (
13 to 13)
specific time point, whereas the other method was based on *Other pain sources include back and musculoskeletal pain.
the pooled SD from the repeated-measures ANOVA. The

Volume -, no. - : - 2015 Annals of Emergency Medicine 3

Ketamine Versus Morphine for Analgesia in the Emergency Department Motov et al

130 Patients 40 Patients

Approached Refused

53%: Requested morphine only

34%: Refused to participate in a study
90 Patients 10%: Undisclosed Reasons
Enrolled 3%: Requested ketamine only

45 Randomized 45 Randomized
To Ketamine To Morphine

Patients available for

45 Available None Excluded 45 Available None Excluded
analysis at 15 minutes

Patients available for

Primary analysis at 45 Available None Excluded 45 Available None Excluded
30 minutes

Patients available for

2 lost on 2 lost on
additional analysis at 43 Available 43 Available
follow-up* follow-up*
60 minutes

Patients available for

2 lost on 2 lost on
additional analysis at 43 Available 43 Available
follow-up* follow-up*
90 minutes

Patients available for

4 lost on 3 lost on
additional analysis at 41 Available 42 Available
follow-up* follow-up*
120 minutes

Figure 1. Participant flow diagram. *Patients were lost to follow-up because of either discharge or transfer from the ED.

21.8 mg (SD¼4.9) of ketamine or 7.7 mg (SD¼1.6) of 21%). All of the patients who reported complete resolution
morphine. All patients showed significant reductions in of pain did so with the analgesic benefit of the study
mean pain numeric rating scale score at 15 and 30 minutes medication and without the use of a rescue analgesic dose
compared with baseline. However, there were no of fentanyl during these measurement intervals. There were
statistically significant differences between the 2 groups at no statistically significant differences between the groups in
either point. At 15 minutes, the mean difference in pain the proportion of patients reporting a 3-point or more
numeric rating scale score was –1.0 (95% CI –2.40 to reduction in pain numeric rating scale score. There was also
0.31). At 30 minutes, the primary outcome comparison, no significant difference between the 2 groups with respect
the mean difference, was 0.2 (95% CI –1.19 to 1.46; to use of rescue fentanyl analgesia at 30 minutes
P¼.97). The 95% CI for the mean difference at 30 (percentage difference¼7%; 95% CI –3% to 16%) or at 60
minutes according to the mixed-model regression SD was minutes (percentage difference¼–5%; 95% CI –18% to
–0.77 to 1.05. The parallel line plots (Figure 2) presenting 9%). At 120 minutes, the ketamine group required
the changes in pain numeric rating scale score for each significantly more rescue fentanyl (percentage
group from baseline to 30 minutes show almost the same difference¼17%; 95% CI 1% to 34%) (Table2).
pattern of decrease, with the exception of 1 patient in the No serious or life-threatening adverse events occurred in
ketamine group who showed an increase from 9 to 10. The either medication group; these included, but were not
box plots of the difference likewise show a similar pattern of limited to, respiratory distress, seizures, and cardiac arrest.
central tendency and dispersion. As shown in Figure 3, There were no changes in vital signs that were clinically
comparison of the pain scores over all time points concerning or required intervention (Table E1, available
demonstrates similar mean pain numeric rating scale scores online at http://www.annemergmed.com). All adverse
in the 2 study groups. effects were transient and did not require treatment.
At 15 minutes, more patients reported complete A statistically significant difference was observed in the
resolution of pain (numeric rating scale¼0) in the ketamine number of ketamine patients who reported any adverse
group (percentage difference¼31%; 95% CI 13% to effects immediately after the medication injection and at
49%). However, this difference was no longer present at 30 15 minutes (percentage difference¼38%; 95% CI 18% to
minutes (percentage difference¼3%; 95% CI –16% to 57%). This difference in adverse effects diminished to

4 Annals of Emergency Medicine Volume -, no. - : - 2015

Motov et al Ketamine Versus Morphine for Analgesia in the Emergency Department

Table 2. Pain trends. postoperative pain, as demonstrated in the anesthesia and

Group surgical literature.17-20 There have been several published
Time
Interval* Ketamine Morphine Difference (95% CI) retrospective studies and prospective trials examining
ketamine used for analgesia in ED patients. Lester et al10
Pain NRS, mean (SD)
Baseline 8.6 (1.5) 8.5 (1.5) 0.1 (
0.46 to 0.77) evaluated 35 patients who received subdissociative
15 3.2 (3.5) 4.2 (2.9)
1.0 (
2.40 to 0.31) ketamine for analgesia and reported that 19 patients (54%)
30 4.1 (3.2) 3.9 (3.1) 0.2 (
1.19 to 1.46)† experienced pain relief after opioid analgesics had failed.
60 4.8 (3.2) 3.4 (3.0) 1.4 (0.13 to 2.75)
90 4.8 (3.1) 3.9 (3.1) 0.9 (
0.37 to 2.28) Richards and Rockford11 evaluated 24 patients who
120 3.9 (2.9) 3.7 (2.9) 0.2 (
1.09 to 1.46) received subdissociative ketamine and reported an overall
Complete resolution of pain, reduction in pain score of 5 points (8.9 [SD¼2.1] to 3.9
No. (%)
15 20 (44) 6 (13) 31 (13.1 to 49.2)
[SD¼3.4]); however, 18 patients (75%) had received
30 12 (27) 11 (24) 3 (
16.3 to 20.7) opioid analgesics before ketamine. In addition, 55% of
60 9 (21) 12 (27)
6 (
25.6 to 11.6) patients reported satisfaction with subdissociative ketamine
90 7 (16) 9 (21)
5 (
21.5 to 12.2)
120 9 (22) 9 (21) 1 (
17.7 to 18.8)
analgesia and 67% stated that they would choose ketamine
Reduction of 3D NRS, analgesia again.11 Neither study reported significant adverse
No. (%) effects in the ketamine recipients. Several prospective
15 34 (75) 31 (69) 6 (
12.3 to 25.6) randomized trials examined the analgesic effect of
30 33 (73) 31 (69) 4 (
14.7 to 23.6)
60 25 (58) 33 (77)
19 (
38.5 to 1.3) subdissociative ketamine and morphine combination on
90 23 (54) 33 (77)
23 (
43.3 to –3.2) patients with traumatic and nontraumatic pain. An out-of-
120 29 (71) 33 (79)
8 (
27.0 to 11.3) hospital study by Johansson et al21 demonstrated statistical
Fentanyl rescue incidence,
No. (%)
improvement in pain reduction by 4.4 points with the use
15 0 0 0 of morphine-ketamine combination in comparison to 3.1
30 4 (9) 1 (2) 7 (
2.9 to 16.3) points with morphine alone. The 3-arm trial by Beaudoin

5
60 4 (9) 6 (14) (
18.1 to 9.0)
et al22 that evaluated 2 different doses of subdissociative
90 5 (11) 5 (12)
1 (
13.1 to 14.1)
120 12 (29) 5 (12) 17 (0.8 to 34.2) ketamine-morphine combinations compared with
NRS, Numeric rating scale.
morphine alone for ED analgesia showed a clinically
*Minutes from time of medication injection. significant decrease in pain intensity for more than 50% of
†
95% CI –0.77 to 1.05 is based on the SD from the mixed-model regression.
patients who received morphine (0.1 mg/kg) and ketamine
(0.15 or 0.3 mg/kg) combination compared with the
equivalence with morphine at the 30-minute interval morphine-only group. In addition, the authors concluded
(Table 3). The most common adverse effects reported by that morphine combined with ketamine at a dose of
ketamine patients were dizziness, disorientation, mood 0.3 mg/kg had more efficacious analgesic effect than a
changes, and nausea. Dizziness and nausea were also combination using a ketamine dose of 0.15 mg/kg.22 Last,
reported by morphine patients. Miller et al23 conducted the first randomized controlled
superiority trial directly comparing subdissociative
LIMITATIONS ketamine to morphine for acute pain in the ED. The results
showed that ketamine administered at a dose of 0.3 mg/kg
This was a single-center study in which patients were
ketamine did not provide a superior maximum reduction in
enrolled as a convenience sample according to
numeric rating scale pain scores compared with morphine
predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Sample size
at 0.1 mg/kg.
was near minimum for adequate power (80%). There was a
In our prospective, randomized, double-blind trial, we
potential for unblinding because some participants
compared single subdissociative-dose ketamine with single-
exhibited ketamine-specific reactions such as nystagmus.
dose morphine for ED patients experiencing acute severe
Patient enrollment was restricted to time frames in which
pain. Our study suggests that subdissociative ketamine is as
both a member of the research team and pharmacy team
effective as morphine in relieving pain at 15 and 30 minutes.
were available.
The subdissociative ketamine group had a larger proportion
of patients who reported complete resolution of pain
DISCUSSION (numeric rating scale score¼0), without the use of analgesic
Subdissociative ketamine has been shown to mitigate fentanyl rescue, at 15 minutes (44% versus 13%); however,
pain and reduce opioid consumption in patients with there was no difference between the groups in pain
chronic pain (neuropathic pain), cancer pain, and acute resolution or change in pain scores at 30 minutes. There was

Volume -, no. - : - 2015 Annals of Emergency Medicine 5

Ketamine Versus Morphine for Analgesia in the Emergency Department Motov et al

Figure 2. Parallel line and box plots of pain scores: baseline versus 30 minutes. The parallel line plots contrast the change in each
patient’s pain numeric rating scale score from baseline to 30 minutes in the ketamine versus the morphine group, whereas the box
plots show the overall group changes in pain numeric rating scale score between the ketamine and morphine groups.

also no difference in the proportion of patients who reported postinjection and at the 15-minute interval, with high
a 3-point or more reduction in pain numeric rating scale percentages of participants experiencing dizziness and
score at either interval. These findings suggest that disorientation compared with the morphine recipients
subdissociative ketamine is as effective as morphine in the
reduction of acute pain within 15 minutes of administration. Table 3. Adverse effects.
No participants in either group experienced clinically Group*
concerning adverse events or changes in vital signs. However,
Time Interval Ketamine Morphine Difference (95% CI)
the subdissociative ketamine recipients did experience a
Report of any adverse effect
statistically significant increase in adverse effects immediately Postinjection 33 (73) 23 (51) 22 (2.2 to 42.2)
15 min 31 (69) 14 (31) 38 (18.2 to 57.4)
30 min 16 (36) 15 (33) 3 (
17.9 to 22.3)
Most common adverse effects
Dizziness
Postinjection 24 (53) 14 (31) 22 (1.8 to 42.6)
15 min 19 (42) 9 (20) 22 (3.2 to 41.3)
30 min 8 (18) 6 (13) 5 (
10.9 to 19.8)
Disorientation
Postinjection 13(29) 1 (2) 27 (12.4 to 40.9)
15 min 5 (11) 0 11 (1.7 to 20.5)
30 min 1 (2) 0 2 (
2.2 to 6.6)
Mood changes
Postinjection 6 (13) 1 (2) 11 (0 to 22.2)
15 min 5 (11) 0 11 (1.7 to 20.5)
30 min 1 (2) 0 2 (
2.2 to 6.6)
Nausea
Postinjection 4 (9) 4 (9) 0 (
12.1 to 12.1)
15 min 8 (18) 5 (11) 7 (
8.2 to 21.5)
30 min 6 (13) 9 (20)
7 (
22.4 to 9.1)
Figure 3. Reported pain numeric rating scale score with 95% *Data are presented as No. (%).
CI bars.

6 Annals of Emergency Medicine Volume -, no. - : - 2015

Motov et al Ketamine Versus Morphine for Analgesia in the Emergency Department

(Table 3). These findings are consistent with those of Presented at the New York American College of Emergency
previous trials of ketamine and opioid combination Physicians conference, July 2014, Bolton Landing, NY; the Society
for Academic Emergency Medicine national conference, May 2014,
regimens. Ahern et al24 found that 24 of 30 out-of-hospital
Dallas, TX; and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Mid-
patients (80%) receiving an intravenous combination of Atlantic regional conference, February 2014, Philadelphia, PA.
hydromorphone (0.5 mg) and ketamine (15 mg) experienced
an adverse effect, with dizziness being the most common.
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of interest guidelines (see www.icmje.org). The authors have stated postoperative pain management in opioid tolerant patients after spinal
that no such relationships exist and provided the following details: fusions: a prospective randomized trial. HSS J. 2007;4:62-65.
This research was funded, in part, by an unrestricted grant from 18. Jouguelet-Lacoste J, La Colla L, Schilling D, et al. The use of
the New York Department of Health’s Empire Clinical Research intravenous infusion or single dose of low-dose ketamine for
Investigator Program. postoperative analgesia: a review of the current literature. Pain Med.
2015;16:383-403.
Publication dates: Received for publication October 24, 2014. 19. Finkel J, Pestieau S, Quezado Z. Ketamine as an adjuvant for
Revision received February 20, 2015. Accepted for publication treatment of cancer pain in children and adolescents. J Pain.
March 3, 2015. 2007;8:515-521.

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Ketamine Versus Morphine for Analgesia in the Emergency Department Motov et al

20. Schwartzman R, Alexander G, Grothusen J. The use of ketamine in emergency department: results of a randomized, double-blind, clinical
complex regional pain syndrome: possible mechanisms. Expert Rev trail. Soc Acad Emerg Med. 2014;21:1193-1202.
Neurother. 2011;11:719-734. 23. Miller J, Schauer S, Ganem V, et al. Low-dose ketamine vs morphine
21. Johansson P, Kongstad P, Johansson A. The effect of combined for acute pain in the ED: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Emerg
treatment with morphine sulphate and low-dose ketamine in a Med. 2015; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajem.2014.12.058.
prehospital setting. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. 2009;17:1-5. 24. Ahern T, Herring A, Stone M, et al. Effective analgesia with low-dose
22. Beaudoin F, Lin C, Guan W, et al. Low-dose ketamine improves pain ketamine and reduced dose hydromorphone in ED patients with
relief in patients receiving intravenous opioids for acute pain in the severe pain. Am J Emerg Med. 2013;31:847-851.

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Motov et al Ketamine Versus Morphine for Analgesia in the Emergency Department

Table E1. Vital signs.

Group
Time Interval Ketamine Morphine Difference (95% CI)
Pulse rate, mean (SD), beats/min
Preinjection 79 (14.8) 79 (15.0) 0 (
6.8 to 5.6)
15 min 85 (18.7) 82 (14.5) 3 (
3.7 to 10.4)
30 min 78 (14.6) 82 (14.7)
4 (
9.8 to 2.8)
Systolic blood pressure,
mean (SD), mm Hg
Preinjection 125 (18.2) 127 (16.1)
2 (
8.8 to 5.6)
15 min 134 (18.6) 122 (17.5) 12 (3.9 to 19.4)
30 min 128 (18.5) 123 (17.3) 5 (
2.7 to 12.8)
Diastolic blood pressure,
mean (SD), mm Hg
Preinjection 76 (13.2) 74 (12.7) 2 (
3.6 to 7.3)
15 min 82 (14.1) 72 (10.6) 10 (4.4 to 15.0)
30 min 76 (12.7) 72 (9.9) 4 (
1.6 to 8.3)
Respiratory rate, mean (SD),
breaths/min
Preinjection 18 (5.7) 18 (4.4) 0 (
2.1 to 2.2)
15 min 19 (4.5) 17 (4.1) 2 (0.6 to 4.2)
30 min 18 (5.0) 18 (4.0) 0 (
1.4 to 2.5)
Oxygen saturation, mean (SD), %
Preinjection 99 (1.3) 98 (2.0) 1 (0.3 to 1.7)
15 min 99 (2.0) 98 (2.3) 1 (0.2 to 2.0)
30 min 99 (2.0) 98 (1.9) 1 (0.1 to 1.8)

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