Adverse events following emergent prehospital sedation of patients with behavioral emergencies: A retrospective cohort study

Feasibility and Safety of Oral Risperidone to Treat Prehospital Agitation

Objective: Agitation is a common prehospital problem and frequently presents without a clear etiology. Given the dynamic environment of the prehospital setting, there has historically been a varied approach to treating agitation with a heavy reliance on parenteral medications. Newer best practice guidelines recommend the incorporation of oral medications to treat patients experiencing agitation. Therefore, we evaluated the use of oral risperidone in a single system after a change in protocol occurred.Methods: This was conducted as a retrospective chart review of an urban/suburban Emergency Medical Services system over the period of 8 months. The first day this medication was implemented throughout the service was included. Charts were included for selection if they included risperidone oral dissolving tablet (ODT) as a charted medication. The primary outcome was administration of additional medications to treat agitation. Exploratory outcome measures included acceptance of medication, documented injury to paramedics, documented injuries to patients, scene times, and adverse events that could possibly be linked to the medication.Results: A total of 552 records were screened for inclusion. Risperidone was offered to 530 patients and accepted by 512 (96.6%). Of these 512 patients, the median age of included patients was 39 years old (IQR 29-52 years old) with a range of 18-89 years old. Rescue or additional medications for agitation were required in 9 (1.8%) cases. There were a total of 4 (0.8%) potential complications following administration of risperidone. There were no reported assaults with subsequent injuries to prehospital personnel or injuries sustained by patients reported in this study.Conclusions: Risperidone ODT was found to be a safe and effective medication to treat mild agitation in a large urban and suburban EMS system. The need for additional medications to treat agitation was rare and there were no documented injuries to either patients or paramedics.

Prehospital Use of Ketamine versus Benzodiazepines for Sedation among Pediatric Patients with Behavioral Emergencies

INTRODUCTION

Ketamine is an emerging alternative sedation agent for prehospital management of agitation, yet research is limited regarding its use for children. Our objective was to compare the effectiveness and safety of ketamine and benzodiazepines when used for emergent prehospital sedation of pediatric patients with behavioral emergencies.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective review of 9-1-1 EMS records from the 2019-2020 ESO Data Collaborative research datasets. We included patients ≤18 years of age who received ketamine or benzodiazepines for EMS primary and secondary impressions indicating behavioral conditions. We excluded patients with first Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores ≤8, those receiving ketamine or benzodiazepines prior to EMS arrival, those receiving both ketamine and benzodiazepines, and interfacility transfers. Effectiveness outcomes included general clinician assessment of improvement, decrease in GCS, and administration of a subsequent sedative. Safety outcomes included mortality; advanced airway placement; ventilatory assistance without advanced airway placement; or marked sedation (GCS ≤8). Chi-square and t-tests were used to compare the ketamine and benzodiazepines groups.

RESULTS

Of 57,970 pediatric patients with behavioral complaints and GCS scores >8, 1,539 received ketamine (13.3%, n = 205) or a benzodiazepine (86.7%, n = 1,334). Most patients were ≥12 years old (89.2%, n = 1,372), predominantly Caucasian (48.3%, n = 744), and were equally distributed by sex (49.7% male, n = 765). First treatment with ketamine was associated with a greater likelihood of improvement (88.8% vs 70.5%, p < 0.001) and a greater average GCS reduction compared to treatment with benzodiazepines (-2.5 [SD:4.0] vs -0.3 [SD:1.7], p < 0.001). Fewer patients who received ketamine received subsequent medication compared to those who received benzodiazepines (12.2% vs 27.0%, p < 0.001). Marked sedation was more frequent with ketamine than benzodiazepines (28.8% vs 2.9%, p < 0.001). Provision of ventilatory support (1.5% vs 0.5%, p = 0.14) and advanced airway placement (1.0% vs 0.2%, p = 0.09) were similar between ketamine and benzodiazepine groups. No prehospital deaths were reported.

CONCLUSION

In this pediatric cohort, prehospital sedation with ketamine was associated with greater patient improvement, less subsequent sedative administration, and greater sedation compared to benzodiazepines. Though we identified low rates of adverse events in both groups, ketamine was associated with more instances of marked sedation, which bears further study.

Intubation Rates following Prehospital Administration of Ketamine for Acute Agitation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND

Ketamine is a fast-acting, dissociative anesthetic with a favorable adverse effect profile that is effective for managing acute agitation as a chemical restraint in the prehospital and emergency department (ED) settings. However, some previously published individual studies have reported high intubation rates when ketamine was administered prehospitally.

OBJECTIVE

This systematic review aims to determine the rate and settings in which intubation following prehospital administration of ketamine for agitation is occurring, as well as associated indications and adverse events.

METHODS

We searched PubMed, Scopus, Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL Plus, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library, ClinicalTrials.gov, OpenGrey, Open Access Theses and Dissertation, and Google Scholar from the earliest possible date until 13/February/2022. Inclusion criteria required studies to describe agitated patients who received ketamine in the prehospital setting as a first-line drug to control acute agitation. Reference lists of appraised studies were screened for additional relevant articles. Study quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment scale. Synthesis of results was completed via meta-analysis, and the GRADE tool was used for certainty assessment.

RESULTS

The search yielded 1466 unique records and abstracts, of which 50 full texts were reviewed, resulting in 18 being included in the analysis. All studies were observational in nature and 15 were from USA. There were 3476 patients in total, and the overall rate of intubation was 16% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 8%-26%). Most intubations occurred in the ED. Within the studies, the prehospital intubation rate ranged from 0% to 7.9% and the ED intubation rate ranged from 0 to 60%. The overall pooled prehospital intubation rate was 1% (95% CI = 0%-2%). The overall pooled ED intubation rate was 19% (95% CI = 11%-30%). The most common indications for intubation were for airway protection and respiratory depression/failure.

CONCLUSIONS

There is wide variation in intubation rates between and within studies. The majority of intubations performed following prehospital administration of ketamine for agitation took place in the ED.