Using ketamine in a pediatric patient with a pain crisis in juvenile idiopathic arthritis. A case report

Abstract

Introduction:

Ketamine has been used as a pain management strategy, particularly in adults. There are some clinical data about the use of Ketamine in children but there are no reports referring to its efficacy, specifically in juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Ketamine could therefore become an alternate option in the management of refractory cases.

Clinical findings:

This report discusses the case of a 7-year-old male patient with a history of juvenile idiopathic arthritis who was admitted to the hospital as a result of an inflammatory pain crisis associated with stiff hands and feet, pain, edema, and enthesitis, in addition to signs of bilateral sacroiliitis, stiffness impairing gait, passive and active movements, poor response to multimodal analgesia with nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, steroids and weak opioids. Adequate pain control and significant improvement of the child’s function was achieved after initiating ketamine infusion at analgesic doses.

Conclusions:

This case provides valuable information about the usefulness of ketamine as a modulator of central sensitization and inflammation that could be extrapolated to a similar population of rheumatology patients.