Compared to other sedatives, ketamine can have a safer effect profile in that it doesn’t mess with the person’s breathing and doesn’t massively slow down their heart rate. An excessive dose can result in a heart rate that is too high and that can collapse into cardiac arrest, but other fast-acting sedatives usually mean that you have to intubate the person because they aren’t going to be breathing adequately on their own until the drug wears off.
The biggest risk with ketamine is the tachycardia, but the other most common twilight sedative, propofol, runs a higher risk of the recipient slowing or stopping their breathing. In my medical experience, ketamine is commonly used for twilight sedation to set broken bones, and propofol is commonly used for short procedures like colonoscopies.
Interesting, I did not know that, thanks. Still a horrible event, but perhaps not as medically unsound as I initially assumed. I am not saying that sedation was the right call
It absolutely was not the right call. In the ER, we use stuff like Haldol for combative patients, it’s substantially less dangerous for the patient, but it takes a couple minutes to kick in.
Compared to other sedatives, ketamine can have a safer effect profile in that it doesn’t mess with the person’s breathing and doesn’t massively slow down their heart rate. An excessive dose can result in a heart rate that is too high and that can collapse into cardiac arrest, but other fast-acting sedatives usually mean that you have to intubate the person because they aren’t going to be breathing adequately on their own until the drug wears off.
I did not know that, in fact I thought it was the other way around
The biggest risk with ketamine is the tachycardia, but the other most common twilight sedative, propofol, runs a higher risk of the recipient slowing or stopping their breathing. In my medical experience, ketamine is commonly used for twilight sedation to set broken bones, and propofol is commonly used for short procedures like colonoscopies.
Interesting, I did not know that, thanks. Still a horrible event, but perhaps not as medically unsound as I initially assumed. I am not saying that sedation was the right call
It absolutely was not the right call. In the ER, we use stuff like Haldol for combative patients, it’s substantially less dangerous for the patient, but it takes a couple minutes to kick in.