Dec 10, 2025
According to a randomized trail published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine by Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Drs. Jonathan Casey and Matthew Semler, and colleagues, doctors treating seriously ill patients in an emergency room setting may want to give the sedative etomidate, rather than ketamine, when placing a breathing tube. It is the first multicenter trial to demonstrate significant cardiovascular risks of high doses of ketamine (low blood pressure, arrhythmia), side effects that have not been well studied in the past.