An Exploratory Study of Esketamine in Patients After Thoracoscopic Surgery

Thoracic surgery can produce severe postoperative acute pain, which can easily lead to cough weakness, atelectasis, respiratory restriction, pneumonia, hypoxemia, secretion retention, respiratory failure and other adverse events. Esketamine can reduce the demand of analgesic opioids, reduce the respiratory depression caused by opioids, improve ventilation, significantly reduce postoperative pain and prolong the analgesic time after thoracic surgery. Therefore, the application of esketamine in postoperative analgesia of patients undergoing thoracoscopic surgery may help to improve the respiratory function of clinical patients and further improve the postoperative analgesia effect, so as to achieve the purpose of accelerating the surgical rehabilitation of patients undergoing thoracoscopic surgery. Esketamine is rarely used in perioperative period in China, and the development of its safe and reasonable application methods and potential role in perioperative anesthesia needs further research and verification. Generally speaking, at present, there is still a lack of evaluation of ketamine in improving respiratory function, pain, anxiety and depression after thoracoscopic surgery, and there is no direct clinical evidence. At present, sufentanil is the most commonly used drug for postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing clinical surgery. As a strong opioid, although sufentanil can provide good analgesic effect, the respiratory depression caused by sufentanil is not conducive to the recovery of postoperative lung function in patients undergoing thoracic surgery. The action sites of esketamine include N- methyl-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor, opioid receptor, monoamine receptor, M cholinergic receptor, sodium channel, calcium channel, etc., which can relieve respiratory depression caused by opioids, stimulate respiration, relax airway smooth muscle, prevent hyperalgesia caused by opioids, reduce the dosage of postoperative analgesics and prolong the duration of posto