In a healthy patient, the lungs provide oxygen to the blood and remove carbon dioxide.
However, in patients with severe lung failure, blood may not adequately be delivered to the
lungs, or the lungs may not adequately supply blood with oxygen. In this case, patients may
require assistance from a machine to help provide this oxygen. Extracorporeal membrane
oxygenation (ECMO) is a device that acts as an artificial lung, allowing the patient to
recover from their illness. Patients receiving support from ECMO are often put in a medically
induced coma while their lungs heal. Certain drugs may stick to the internal surfaces of the
machine; therefore leading to decreased concentrations. Patients receiving ECMO often require
high doses of both pain medications and sedatives in order to provide comfort. Low doses of a
drug, ketamine, may help to provide additive effects to pain relief and allow lower doses of
other pain medications. The hypothesis is that patients treated with continuous intravenous
ketamine, will have lower requirements of other pain medications while receiving ECMO for
acute respiratory failure while achieving the desired level of sedation.