Common Medication Errors: Drug #6: Ketorolac
Ketorolac is a good option for relieving pain in patients with sickle cell disease, but there can be a problem with how this agent is prescribed for children.
A 5-year-old boy (20 kg) with sickle cell disease presented with a 2-day history of increasingly severe back pain. A detailed workup showed no signs of infection. The patient’s parents did not want their son to take narcotics for the pain. Thus, the boy was given a prescription for ketorolac -- 10 mg PO every 6 hours x 5 days [0.5 mg/kg dose]).
What’s the problem here?
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