Background:
The effective relief of renal colic patients with low complications is one of
the important concerns of emergency physicians. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of
injectable ketamine as an alternative to routine drugs in the relief of pain in patients with renal colic.
Methods:
This double-blind clinical trial was conducted on patients who had suffered kidney pain
due to kidney stones in 2017, referred to Ahvaz Imam Khomeini Hospital. Patients were divided into
2 groups: the first group received intravenous ketamine (0.3 mg/kg) and the second group received
intravenous morphine (0.1 mg/kg) in a double-blind form. Finally, the mean pain was evaluated before
injection, after 10, 20, 30, and 60 minutes as the initial result while the side effects were considered
as secondary results.
Results:
In this study, 135 patients with renal colic participate in this study. The mean pain at the
time of referral to the hospital in the group receiving morphine and ketamine was 9.2 and 9.2, respectively,
which did not show any significant difference. Based on these findings, there was no significant
difference between the factors evaluated during the study of the two groups. Only in the ketamine
group, there were 3 cases of nausea and 1 of vomiting. However, there was a significant increase
in the need for additional doses of fentanyl in the morphine recipient group (p = 0.02).
Conclusion:
The findings suggest that the use of ketamine can produce a more rapid relief effect,
and decrease the use of opioids which create various complications, including nausea and vomiting in
patients, especially patients with renal colic.