IFRC position on adding ketamine on the list 1 of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances

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IFRC position on adding ketamine on the list 1 of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances

23 February 2015

Ketamine is the anaesthetic of choice when reliable manual and mechanical ventilation equipment is not available or when advanced airway management (tracheal intubation) is not possible (e.g. in mobile clinics, road-traffic accidents with crushed vehicle and trapped persons). Ketamine has a very favourable safety profile in clinical use and is particularly useful in healthcare settings where task-shifting is required due to a lack of skilled anaesthetic staff. In resource poor hospital settings without anaesthetic machines, often without oxygen and sometimes even without electricity, ketamine is the only anaesthetic drug that allows even major surgery being performed. Its usability in traumatology makes it the preferred drug in mass casualty situations, such as earthquakes.

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