Ketamine Versus Fentanyl as an Adjunct to Propofol-Assisted Emergency Department Procedural Sedation

• The primary outcome of interest in this study will be the incidence and severity of adverse events during procedural sedation, characterized by using an ordered, four-point categorical scale of airway, ventilatory and hemodynamic adverse events.
  

• The secondary outcome measures of this study will be: the incidence and type of individual adverse events listed in the primary outcome
  
• the dose of propofol administered during the procedure
  
• times from study drug administration to: beginning of procedure, end of procedure, recovery of appropriate verbal response, Emergency Department discharge, incidence of any adverse event(s)
  
• successful completion of the procedure
  
• the operator’s rating of the sedation
  
• incidence of any adverse drug reaction
  
• patient visual analogue scale (VAS) ratings of analgesia, amnesia, and general satisfaction.
  

This initial, single-centre feasibility study will have the following specific objectives:

• Comparison of low-dose ketamine with fentanyl as adjunct to propofol-assisted emergency department procedural sedation, with respect to safety and efficacy parameters;
• Pilot of a blinded emergency department sedation and analgesia protocol, including drug doses, concealment techniques, and data collection tools, to determine the feasibility of a subsequent larger, multi-centre trial;
• Determination of the true incidence of the primary outcome measures in the study population, using the study drug administration doses and protocol, such that an accurate sample size may be estimated for a future, adequately-powered, multi-centre trial;
• Validation of a newly-developed ordered, categorical rating scale for the reporting of respiratory and hemodynamic adverse events occurring during emergency department procedural sedation and analgesia.