Outlet: EurekAlert! 

Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute

Doctors treating seriously ill patients in an emergency setting may want to give the sedative etomidate, rather than ketamine, while placing a breathing tube, according to a randomized trial published Dec. 9 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The Randomized Trial of Sedative Choice for Intubation (RSI) is the first multicenter trial to demonstrate significant cardiovascular risks of high doses of ketamine (low blood pressure, arrhythmia), side effects that have not been well studied in the past.

“We know that patients receive treatments every day in hospitals around the world that have never been evaluated in a rigorous study and may be ineffective or even harmful,” said lead author Jonathan Casey, MD, associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Vanderbilt Health.

“Studies like RSI are critically important to understand the treatments that patients are already receiving and to ensure that patients receive the treatments that will result in the best outcomes,” he said.