Riassunto dello studio

Seventeen randomized controlled trials containing a total of 757 patients presenting to the emergency department with acute pain were included in this meta-analysis comparing an administration of intravenous low-dose ketamine (n=380) to intravenous morphine (n=377) for pain management. The primary outcome of interest was pain on a numeric pain reporting scale (NPRS) within 15 mins of analgesic administration, as well as range of time periods including 15-30, 30-45, 45-60, 60-90, and 90-120 minutes after analgesic administration. Secondary outcomes of interest included need for rescue analgesics, and incidence of adverse events (i.e., nausea, hypoxia). Results revealed that pooled NPRS scores were statistically significantly favored in the morphine group vs the low-dose ketamine at time intervals of 60-90 minutes, and 90-120 minutes (p=0.01; p<0.00001, respectively), but not at any other timepoint (p>0.05 for all). All other outcomes were not statistically significantly different between the 2 groups at any timepoints (p>0.05 for all).