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Completed Phase 4 Interventional Results available

A Comparison of Intra-op Ketamine vs Placebo in Patients Having Spinal Fusion

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02424591

Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02424591. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.

ClinicalTrials.gov public records Last synced Sep 5, 2026, 3:17 PM EDT

Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.

Official title

A Prospective, Randomized, Single Blinded Comparison of Intraoperative Ketamine Infusion Versus Placebo in Patients Having Spinal Fusion

Brief summary

Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.

Postoperative pain is severe after major spine surgery. Opioids such as morphine and hydromorphone are routinely used for postoperative pain control. These drugs have significant side effects, most importantly respiratory depression, nausea, constipation and tolerance. Moreover, many spine surgery patients have used opioid pain medication for back pain long term, leading to pre-surgical opioid tolerance and increased postoperative pain. This has led to a search for adjuvant medications to reduce the use of opioids and reduce opioid mediated side effects and tolerance. Ketamine is an intravenous anesthetic with analgesic properties in subanesthetic doses. Ketamine is a noncompetitive antagonist of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. NMDA receptors are involved in central pain sensitization via wind-up phenomenon and altered pain memory, a process which can be blocked by ketamine. NMDA receptor antagonists may prevent the development of tolerance to opioids and hyperalgesia. Ketamine has been safely used to decrease pain in numerous studies. Ketamine can also act as an antidepressant with hours of administration. Ketamine has rapid brain uptake and subsequent re-distribution with a distribution half-life of 10-15 minutes and an elimination half-life of 2 hours. Ketamine does not cause respiratory depression.

Study identification

NCT ID
NCT02424591
Recruitment status
Completed
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase 4
Lead sponsor
NYU Langone Health
Other
Enrollment
46 participants

Conditions and interventions

Interventions

Drug · Other

Eligibility (public fields only)

Age range
18 Years and older
Sex
All
Healthy volunteers
Healthy volunteers not accepted

This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.

Study timeline

Start date
Jul 31, 2014
Primary completion
Dec 31, 2015
Completion
Sep 30, 2016
Last update posted
Jun 13, 2017

2014 – 2016

United States locations

U.S. sites
1
U.S. states
1
U.S. cities
1
Facility City State ZIP Site status
NYU School of Medicine New York New York 10016

Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.

About this trial record page

What this page shows
Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02424591, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
What this page does not do
No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
Where the data comes from
Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
Last refresh
Last update posted Jun 13, 2017 · Synced Sep 5, 2026

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Open the official record

The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT02424591 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.

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