The emergency department experience with prehospital ketamine: a case series of 13 patients.

Background: There are no published reports examining the effects that ketamine administered prior to hospital arrival has on patients after their transfer to the emergency department (ED).

Objective: In order to better understand the risk-benefit ratio for the prehospital use of ketamine, we examined the ED courses of 13 patients to whom emergency medical services (EMS) had administered ketamine for chemical restraint.

Methods: This project was undertaken as part of our EMS system's continuous quality improvement (CQI) process.