Annals of emergency medicine
-
We sought to characterize the clinical manifestations, outcome, and etiology of inadvertent ketamine overdose in the emergency department. ⋯ No adverse outcomes were noted in 9 healthy children treated in the ED who inadvertently received 5 to 100 times the intended dose of ketamine. Toxicity manifested as prolonged sedation in all 9 and brief respiratory depression in 4. The margin of safety in ketamine overdose may be wide, although less common and more serious outcomes cannot be excluded by this small, self-reported sample.