Ketamine Use for Palliative Care in the Austere Environment: Is Ketamine the Path Forward for Palliative Care.
The American journal of hospice & palliative care March 1, 2025 John R Reed, Stephanie K Parks, Antony Kaniaru et al. 1 citation
Palliative care focuses on the holistic needs of patients and their families rather than on the pathology of a diagnosis, aiming to reduce the stress of illness. U.S. service members deployed to austere environments have significantly less access to such care than those in military treatment facilities in the U.S. Ketamine, widely used for analgesia and anesthesia in combat zones, preserves respiratory function, causes minimal hemodynamic changes, and yields lower pain scores compared to opioids. Its use for palliative care is a new clinical strategy to provide sedation and pain management for acute pain crises or comfort measures for the terminally ill, making it attractive for managing critically wounded patients during prolonged medical care when evacuation is impossible.