The objective of this study was to report the authors' experience using intravenous
ketorolac (Syntex Laboratories, Palo Alto, CA) as an
analgesic in the treatment of
renal colic in a convenience sample at three suburban community hospital emergency departments. Twenty-five patients with
renal colic were participants. Pregnant women, patients with a history of renal or hepatic impairment,
bleeding diathesis, active
peptic ulcer disease, or
hypersensitivity to
aspirin or nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (
NSAID) were excluded.
Ketorolac 30 mg administered intravenously during a 1-minute period, and the following parameters were monitored at times 0, 5, 10, 20, 30, and 60 minutes:
pain on a scale of 0 to 10, pulse rate, blood pressure, and adverse side effects. A total of 25 patients were included in our series. Initially, they had a median
pain score of 9 with an interquartile range of 1. Thereafter, the median
pain scores and (interquartile ranges) were 8 (three) at 5 minutes, 5 (four)
at 10 minutes, 2 (four) at 20 minutes, 1 (three) at 30 minutes, and 0 (one) at 60 minutes. There were no adverse side effects observed in any patients. Therefore, it can be concluded that intravenous
ketorolac is an effective
analgesic agent for the control of
pain in patients with
renal colic.