Comparison of Ketamine and Tramadol in Management ofAcute Pain; a Systematic Review

Management of pain is an important part of care in the emergency department (ED). Tramadoland Ketamine have both been introduced as alternatives to opioids in the ED and post-operative setting. Inthis study, we conducted a systematic review of available literature to compare the analgesic efficacy, and sideeffect profile of these two medications in management of severe acute pain.

This is a systematicreview based on the PRISMA protocol. In this study, peer-reviewed papers published by March 3, 2020, whichcompared analgesic effects of tramadol and ketamine in management of acute pain were included.

Theinitial search of online databases identified 2826 non-duplicate records. Finally, three papers available in full textwere analyzed for study quality. The results show that ketamine has consistently been shown to be superior totramadol for pain control and causes fewer significant side effects.

Results of this review show thatlow-dose ketamine is more effective than tramadol in pain control, while causing fewer side effects.