Ketamine as a Supplementary Analgosedative in COVID-19 Patients on Mechanical Ventilation: A Single-Center Observational Study

Abstract

Introduction: Sedation of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients on mechanical ventilation (MV) has lately become a concern. The purpose of this study was to report the sedation strategy used in COVID-19 ARDS patients who were mechanically ventilated at a single institution. Methods: In this study, we performed a retrospective review of the sedation strategy in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 ARDS patients in our 37-bed intensive care unit. All mechanically ventilated COVID-19 ARDS patients who were sedated and hospitalized between March 2020 and September 2021 were included in this study. Patients reported using sedatives and analgesics as well as suffering from delirium. Results: This study involved 100 patients with COVID-19 ARDS who were both eligible to participate. In all patients, a triple sedation regimen was required. Ketamine attitudes reduced patients’ opioid and benzodiazepine needs (p<0.05). Furthermore, the following ketamine administration, the need for vasopressors was significantly reduced (p<0.05). There were no drug interactions documented. Conclusion: We showed that extremely high sedative doses were required in this group of patients with COVID-19 ARDS who needed MV. However, our findings suggest that when ketamine infusion was introduced, benzodiazepine, opiate, and vasopressor doses were reduced without adverse pharmacological effects. Further research will be required to determine appropriate dosing regimens.

Keywords

• ketamine
• sedation
• ards
• covid-19
• mechanical ventilation