Ketamine is low-risk, cost-effective, easy-to-implement and standardize, and can has been proven to mitigate key risk factors for chronic post-mastectomy pain, including severe pain persisting 7 days after surgery, pain aversion, anxiety and depression. A single ketamine bolus has emerged as a powerful treatment for anxiety and depression, which happen to be key risk factors and play causative roles for chronic post-mastectomy pain.
We conduct a multi-site, randomized, double blind, effectiveness study to test the hypothesis that perioperative ketamine infusion can reduce chronic post-mastectomy pain.