Oral transmucosal ketamine: an effective premedication in children

The oral cavity offers a simple, painless way of drug administration. For this reason, we used oral transmucosal ketamine (5–6 mg·kg⁻¹) for premedication in 15 children and compared it with intranasal ketamine (5–6 mg·kg⁻¹), placebo and intramuscular ketamine (5–6 mg·kg⁻¹). Oral transmucosal ketamine (OTK) provided effective sedation, facilitated i.v. line insertion and was accepted with pleasure by the patients (as lollipops). The lollipops produced a slight increase in gastric volumes but did not affect gastric pH. In conclusion OTK has been shown to be an effective, harmless preoperative medication in paediatric patients.