Ketamine infusions

[Yo GabbaPentin]

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What are your experiences with ketamine infusions for crps, neuropathic pain and fibro? I realize that it is not covered by insurance. Any good or bad experiences with it?

 

[willabeast]

i had a fun experience with ketamine in 1982. i was at La Jolla VA, had a Vietnam Veteran inpatient on the table for an I and D of hand abscess. My attending suggested ketamine for sedation/analgesia.
went to post op patient the next day, could not find him. turns out he was in the closed lock down psych unit. while under the ketamine he had a flashback traumatic episode that he was in Vietnam and he was being tortured by VietCong.
i have used it very very sparingly since then. 🙂

 

[H2H]

As a part of a research grant during fellowship, for CRPS/refractory neuropathic pain we did a 5 day Ketamine infusion program with higher daily titrated doses (10 mg/hr increased slowly to 20 mg/hr for 5 hours daily). About 30 patients throughout the year.
Rarely we had a good outcome, like maybe 5-8% for pain improvement for 30 days, mostly 1-2 days pain improvement 15% or no improvement after 5 days ~ 80% patients. Pretty much seemed like a waste of resources. Not a fan anymore...

 

[101N]

Ketamine infusions? Isn't that something you get a Burning Man?

 

[freddydpt]

These are done routinely in the Philadelphia, PA region. Never met anyone who had it, though.

 

[NJPAIN]

What are your experiences with ketamine infusions for crps, neuropathic pain and fibro? I realize that it is not covered by insurance. Any good or bad experiences with it?

If you are interested, PM me. I can put you in touch with a guy at HSS in NYC and one in NJ who does them as well.

 

[BobBarker]

They were doing this at Utah when I interviewed there for fellowship. They were antistim and pro infusion.

 

[H2H]

They were doing this at Utah when I interviewed there for fellowship. They were antistim and pro infusion.

True that- I trained there 🙂

 

[PainDrain]

I did them in fellowship with about a 50% response rate and duration of effect varied. One patient with CRPS of the lower extremity after multiple surgeries had excellent response and said it gave her significant relief for 4-5 months.

 

[Pacman27]

I think the only indication is CRPS

I did quite a few in fellowship with good responses, but some of these patients would come in monthly for an infusion.

However, there are more then a handful of cash clinics that diagnose everyone with CRPS for obvious reasons