How often is ketamine used? Isn’t there other better alternatives? I’m curious since from what I understand, K holing is really not enjoyable and it seems like quite an extreme sedative, almost bordering on torture. How often do paramedics use it over a year?
Just in case my tone comes off as accusatory, I’m genuinely curious. Thank you for doing such a tough job, I know it isn’t easy.
Well, it’s come into much more wide usage over the last five years as a non-opioid alternative for pain management and non-benzo sedative. For stuff like burns, I understand that it’s much more effective than opiates for pain management. As for how extreme it is, I suspect that that’s dose dependent. I’ve never administered it, as my service doesn’t carry it. Generally, EMS Medical Directors are overly conservative (imo) and usually won’t put stuff that’s SUPER dangerous out in the field, so I’d be pretty surprised if that were the case here. That is, we absolutely carry stuff that can kill you if we fuck up, but it’s usually stuff where it would have to be a pretty significant fuck up (as these guys did here), not “whoops I got the dose wrong by 0.001 mg”
How often is ketamine used? Isn’t there other better alternatives? I’m curious since from what I understand, K holing is really not enjoyable and it seems like quite an extreme sedative, almost bordering on torture. How often do paramedics use it over a year?
Just in case my tone comes off as accusatory, I’m genuinely curious. Thank you for doing such a tough job, I know it isn’t easy.
Well, it’s come into much more wide usage over the last five years as a non-opioid alternative for pain management and non-benzo sedative. For stuff like burns, I understand that it’s much more effective than opiates for pain management. As for how extreme it is, I suspect that that’s dose dependent. I’ve never administered it, as my service doesn’t carry it. Generally, EMS Medical Directors are overly conservative (imo) and usually won’t put stuff that’s SUPER dangerous out in the field, so I’d be pretty surprised if that were the case here. That is, we absolutely carry stuff that can kill you if we fuck up, but it’s usually stuff where it would have to be a pretty significant fuck up (as these guys did here), not “whoops I got the dose wrong by 0.001 mg”