can give them ketamine and get them through without requiring anesthesia for a 10-minute drainage. Every patient has an optimal combination that will work for them, and ultimately, we’re able to off er options.
It’s surprising how quickly we realized the benefits of ketamine. Part of the study was a brief survey about how effective you think moderate sedation is, before being prompted several months later about how effective deep sedation is. The last question is the most telling: we asked everyone what they would choose for themselves if they had to have an abscess drain. 85–90% said deep sedation with ketamine.
How might this research impact broader treatment decisions, clinical processes or training within IR? AD: In the second phase of my career, my goal is to convince IRs across the country to get ketamine into their toolkit, but there are barriers. There’s advocacy that must be done. So, I have shifted my entire focus. I’ve gotten grants to study this, and I
The last question is the most telling: we asked everyone what they would choose for themselves if they had to have an abscess drain. 85–90% said deep sedation with ketamine.
want to publish this data to show how safe and effective it is. Then we can go and advocate as IRs to sedation committees.
What are your next steps or plans for follow-up research? AD: We have received grants from SIR Foundation and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), which will fund randomized, single-blind studies where the patients enroll, and they don’t know if they’re going get moderate or deep sedation. We know, but we don’t tell them. We’ll collect pain scores like we did for the other study but
also give them a validated anesthesia questionnaire to assess satisfaction and other side eff ects.
I have an IRB approval, so we’re about to open those studies. The SIR Foundation grant is supporting a study specifi c to abscess drainage, which of course is a very painful procedure a lot of times because the tissue is infl amed. The RSNA grant is looking at lung biopsies, specifi cally because lung biopsies are somewhat painful.
We did see a diff erence with ketamine in our observational study. Lung biopsies tend to come with a high complication rate, specifi cally lung collapse. So, if there are any changes in an adverse event profi le, we’re more likely to see it in something with a high complication rate such as that.
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irbc.sirweb.org to learn more and help your practice thrive. 32 IRQ | SPRING 2025
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