Oral Ketamine for Treatment of Vaso-Occlusive Pain

Recruiting now · Phase 3

Conditions studied: Vaso-occlusive Crisis

In brief

The purpose of this study is to learn more about the feasibility of oral ketamine for the treatment of painful sickle-cell crises in children and adolescents as a supplement to intravenous (IV) opioids. There is a need for improved non-opioid analgesia for patients experiencing sickle-cell crises in the hospital and prehospital setting, as children and adolescents with sickle cell disease who experience sickle-cell crises often have severe pain that is not well controlled by high dose opioids, leading to poor pain management and opioid-related side effects. The study will begin when patients are admitted to the Emergency Department of Boston Children's Hospital for treatment of a sickle-cell crisis. Oral ketamine will be administered every 8 hours for the next 48 hours. Patients will have continuous cardiorespiratory monitoring for the duration of the study, as per routine care, as well as monitoring by the hospital's Acute Pain Service at least twice daily for pain management and side effects of pain treatment. At the end of the 48-hour study duration, patients will discuss with the Pain Service and Hematology Service whether to continue oral ketamine, change to intravenous ketamine, or discontinue ketamine based on clinical indications such as level of pain and sedation while on opioids.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT05378555

Run by

Boston Children's Hospital

People needed

10

Starts

2023-05-01

Expected to finish

2026-06-01

Last updated by the study team

2025-11-21

Who can join

Age: 12 and older, up to 24. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Patients 12-24 years of age who require admission for vaso-occlusive pain

You may not qualify if…

• Patients who have had side effects to previous use of intravenous ketamine for treatment of vaso-occlusive pain that would preclude using ketamine for future pain episodes.
• Patient refusal to participate

Where it is running

• Boston Children's Hospital — Boston, Massachusetts, United States (enrolling)

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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