Management of severe acute pain in emergency settings: ketamine reduces morphine consumption.

Objective: The aim of the study was to compare in emergency settings 2 analgesic regimens, morphine with ketamine (K group) or morphine with placebo (P group), for severe acute pain in trauma patients.

Methods: This was a prospective, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, clinical trial. Seventy-three trauma patients with a severe acute pain defined as a visual analog scale (VAS) score of at least 60/100 were enrolled.