[Ketamine for paediatric anaesthesia: useful, fool or...?].

The use of ketamine for paediatric sedation-anaesthesia-analgesia is still growing despite the availability of adequate alternatives. Based on the literature, the present work will briefly review the well-known properties underlying the widespread use of this drug in this particular clinical situation. In adult patients, the use of ketamine as a new element of the balanced anaesthesia-analgesia is also ever growing. This is based on the recently demonstrate antihyperalgesic and anti-pro-inflammatory properties of this drug. This work questions the existence of such benefits in the paediatric population. Finally, the "dark side" of ketamine will be discussed. Experimental studies on developing brain clearly demonstrate that this old anaesthetic is a potent trigger for pathologic neuronal apoptosis.