Postoperative Management of Shivering: A Comparison of Pethidine vs. Ketamine.
BACKGROUND
One of the unpleasant side effects of general anesthesia is shivering in the process of recovery. It is an involuntary oscillatory mechanical movement that can be classified as clonic movements. These movements can affect one or several groups of skeletal muscles beginning from 5 to 30 minutes after the discontinuation of anesthesia.


OBJECTIVE
We aimed to study ketamine's effect on shivering after operation compared to pethidine as a way for treatment of postoperative shivering.


METHODS
In this study, 60 patients who underwent ENT surgery with general anesthesia and had shivering during recovery were randomly divided into two groups of 30 patients each receiving ketamine (0.2 mg/kg IV) and pethidine (0.5 mg/kg).


RESULTS
There was no statistically significant difference between the shivering intensity in both groups. Only regarding the shivering in the first minute after entering the recovery room, there was an obvious difference between ketamine and pethidine groups which was again not statistically significant (P = 0.07).


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study showed that ketamine and pethidine are both equally effective in the reduction of postoperative shivering.
Department of Anesthesiology, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Mahmood
M
Eydi
Liver and Gastrointestinal Disease Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Samad Ej
SE
Golzari
Department of Anesthesiology, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Davood
D
Aghamohammadi
Faculty of Paramedical, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Khosro
K
Kolahdouzan
Department of Anesthesiology, Rasoul Akram Medical Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran.
Saeid
S
Safari
Department of Anesthesiology, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Zohreh
Z
Ostadi
Anesthesia; Ketamine; Meperidine; Pethidine; Shivering