Observational study finds intraoperative ketamine reduces opioid use in chronic opioid users after spine surgery, suggesting its importance in pain management.
In patients with chronic opioid use, intraoperative ketamine administration was associated with decreased opioid use at 1 month postoperatively following multilevel lumbar spine fusion. Ketamine should be considered an important adjuvant treatment for intraoperative pain management in patients with long-term opioid use. However, ketamine should be used with caution in opioid-naive patients as there was an increased incidence of long-term postoperative opioid use in this group.
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Diltz et al. (2026) studied this question.
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