Review Article
Ketamine Effectiveness in Cancer Pain Management: Evidence-based Practice
| Bilal SH Badr Naga, MSN, RN, BSN* and Mohammad M. Thaher, MSN, RN | |
| Department of Adult Health Nursing, The Hashemite University, Jordan | |
| Corresponding Author : | Bilal SH Badr Naga Department of Adult Health Nursing The Hashemite University, Jordan E-mail: bilal_badrnaga@yahoo.com |
| Received March 28, 2013; Accepted May 27, 2013; Published May 29, 2013 | |
| Citation: Badr Naga BSH, Al-Atiyyat NMH (2013) Ketamine Effectiveness in Cancer Pain Management: Evidence-based Practice. J Pain Relief 2:117. doi: 10.4172/2167-0846.1000117 | |
| Copyright: © 2013 Badr Naga BSH, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
Abstract
Ketamine is a drug used for the induction and maintenance of general anesthesia. Despite the evidence of epidural ketamine in pain management in the oncology settings, there is still a gap in the clinical setting regarding the effectiveness of using ketamine in the management of cancer related pain. The purpose of this study is to review and analyze the existing research studies on using ketamine in the management of cancer pain, summarize the findings into evidence-based recommendations, and to answer the following PICO question: is of whether or not ketamine is an effective option for the management of cancer pain? A comprehensive literature review was conducted using the electronic database of CINAHL, EBSECO, MEDLINE, COCHRANE, and PubMed, for articles published between 2005 and 2013. The need for more RCTs in different cancer patients to understand the benefits/adverse effects of using ketamine in the management of cancer related pain. Some of the reviewed studies on ketamine show success rate, either due to pain management failure or appearance of adverse effects of opioids, ketamine as an third line analgesic have proven to be of effect in cancer patients with severe pain.
