Ketamine: prehospital and in-hospital use

Ketamine is a unique anaesthetic drug which produces dissociative anaesthesia. In this condition the patient is insensible, with excellent analgesia but with minimal depression of respiration and circulation. The analgesia can be maintained at subanaesthetic doses. The pharmacology and practical use of ketamine is discussed with practical emphasis on its use in trauma patients, for whom it has special advantages. Key words: anaesthesia; analgesia; ketamine; traum