Clinical Efficacy of Dexmedetomidine versus Ketamine in Shoulder Dislocation Reduction: A Randomized Clinical Trial Study

Shoulder joint dislocation and displacement is a common clinical condition. The present research aims to compare the clinical efficacy of ketamine versus dexmedetomidine during shoulder joint reduction.

In this randomized clinical double-blind trial method, patients aged 18 to 65 years with shoulder dislocation referred to the Emergency Hospital of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ahvaz, Iran, were enrolled. Patients were separated into two groups, patients in group A received 1mg/kg nebu-lized ketamine and patients in group B received 1 μg/kg nebulized dexmedetomidine. Pain score was recorded at 5 different time points: Zero (before intervention), 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes after intervention., The pain score was evaluated using the visual analog scale (VAS) test. A linear regression test was carried out to compare the slopes. Also, ANOVA repeated measures test variables differences between groups. Then Tukeychr('39')s multiple comparisons as post-hock were applied to compare the pains at different time points. Using IBM SPSS version 19.0 software, all analyzes were accomplished.

The pain score in both groups significantly decreased during different time points. The pain reduction slope in the group that received dexmedetomidine is meaningfully upper than that of ketamine (-0.08 vs. -0.06, p=0.012). The ketamine action onset time was 20 minutes after the in-tervention. In comparison, the effect of dexmedetomidine has an onset of 10 minutes after the in-tervention.

Overall, the results of current research demonstrated that although nebulized dexme-detomidine and nebulized ketamine produce a significant decrease in pain score, dexmedetomidine provides a faster effect. Therefore, nebulized dexmedetomidine seems to be used as an appropriate choice to induce sedation during shoulder joint reduction in emergency departments.