Lidocaine-Ketamine for Management of Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is defined as 'an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissues damage, or described in terms of such damage". It is estimated that 1 in 5 Canadians experience chronic pain "Chronic pain is associated with the worst quality of life compared with other chronic diseases such as chronic lung or heart disease". Many of these problems are confined to a specific anatomic structure, and can be diagnosed and treated by injections, physical therapy, surgery, etc. Nonetheless, other individuals experience a more generalized pain. This condition has also resulted I depressed mood, bad relations with other people, sleep disturbances and poor quality of life. The condition is very difficult to manage, and multiple methods have been recommended. Therapeutic intravenous infusion may be considered as one of these methods. Patients come for infusions of non-opioid medications under medical supervision and in a scheduled fashion. Two most commonly used mediation are lidocaine and ketamine. Even though it is common to use multiple medications with complementary mechanisms of action to treat pain a combined lidocaine-ketamine infusion has never been studied Therefore, the purpose of this research study is to determine whether mixture of two medications (ketamine and lidocaine) infused intravenously 1 time per month for 6 months results in reduction of pain unpleasantness.