The use of ketamine in complex regional pain syndrome: possible mechanisms

2011/05/01 by Robert J. Schwartzman, Guillermo M. Alexander, John R. Grothusen · 2 citations
Medicine · #Pain Management and Treatment #Treatment of Major Depression #Pain Mechanisms and Treatments

paper · doi:10.1586/ern.11.31

openalex publication_date 2011/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

Complex regional pain syndrome is a neuropathic pain syndrome that is characterized by: severe pain beyond the area of injury; autonomic dysregulation; neurogenic edema; movement disorder; and atrophy and dystrophy. Ketamine is an open-channel NMDA blocker that only acts on those receptors whose Mg(2+) block has been lifted. It is effective in the treatment of the syndrome when standard treatments have failed. Different protocols are utilized depending on the severity of illness. There have been no serious ketamine-induced complications from these protocols, owing to careful psychological screening and the liberal use of midazolam and lorazepam to counter any psychomimetic effects and clonidine to block possible 'Olney's' lesions.

Citations

• Novel classes of responsive and unresponsive C nociceptors in human skin
• COMPARATIVE PHARMACOLOGY OF THE KETAMINE ISOMERS
• Mechanisms of Neuropathic Pain
• Molecular Determinants of Agonist Discrimination by NMDA Receptor Subunits: Analysis of the Glutamate Binding Site on the NR2B Subunit
• Validation of proposed diagnostic criteria (the “Budapest Criteria”) for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
• Subanesthetic Ketamine Infusion Therapy: A Retrospective Analysis of a Novel Therapeutic Approach to Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
• Signs and symptoms of reflex sympathetic dystrophy: prospective study of 829 patients
• Effects of ketamine on sensory perception: evidence for a role of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors.

Cited by

• Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: A Comprehensive Review
• Complex regional pain syndrome [wikipedia]