Introduction:

The shaking is frequent. Besides increasing the pain, it increases the metabolic demand and the oxygen consumption; several drugs are used to eliminate it.

Objective:

To determine the effectiveness of ketamine and magnesium sulfate in patients with shaking after subarachnoid anesthesia.

Methods:

A quasi-experimental investigation of 394 patients who received spinal anesthesia in an elective way, assisted at Dr. Juan Bruno Zayas Alfonso Teaching General Hospital was carried out in Santiago de Cuba, from September, 2016 to the same period in 2018. They were divided in 2 random groups with 197 members each one: A (ketamine 0.4 mg/kg) and B (magnesium sulfate 50 mg/kg), to whom the medications were given once shaking began.

Results:

In both groups the 45-64 years patients prevailed. There was homogeneity between men and women, without statistical significance (p = 0.5378). Most of those affected were in the group of anesthetic risk II (88.1 %). In the 2 groups the degree III of shaking before therapy prevailed, just 3.5 % in group B maintained the same condition at 30 minutes. In the first 10 minutes of giving the magnesium sulfate shaking disappeared in most of the patients (74.5 %). This drug was effective in 83.8 % of those affected and in those that received ketamine it was of 42.1 %, both without side effects.

Conclusions:

The incidence of shaking was high. The ketamine and magnesium sulfate were effective when allowing the disappearance of shaking in a short period of time, but the second drug overcame the first one in a considerable magnitude.

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