Ketamine May Cause Bladder, Kidney Dysfunction
Updated June 2007- Several epidemiologists have linked several severe cases of bladder and kidney dysfunction to ketamine abuse in ten young adults in Hong Kong. Widely abused by young adults as a party drug, ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic similar to PCP and typically is used as an animal tranquilizer in veterinary clinics.
Doctors writing in the latest issue of the Hong Kong Medical Journal described ten cases of chronic ketamine abusers in which patients could only hold approx. 30 milliliters - two tablespoons - of urine in their bladder, and were required to void every fifteen minutes. One patient went into acute kidney failure and had suffered from some liver damage as well.
This kind of kidney damage has never been linked to extensive ketamine abuse anywhere in the world, and scientists surmise that it must have something to do with the ingredient used to cut street ketamine.
Epidemiologists have urged all frontline healthcare workers to warn their patients of the dangers of street ketamine and the toxins that it may be contaminated with. Early urology referral is critical to combat this very serious renal dysfunction.