Professor Philip Peyton at the University of Melbourne and Austin Health.
The end is in sight for the ROCKet trial with 4600 patients recruited and it is predicted to complete early 2025. We encourage sites to complete their data entry in the database as soon as possible. Data cleaning will commence shortly and we will be contacting sites individually with queries.
Study hypotheses
That intravenous ketamine given prior to and following surgical incision for up to three days reduces the incidence of chronic post-surgical pain at three months.
Study size
4884 patients.
Study design
Large, multicentre, randomised, double blind trial.
Primary outcome
Chronic post-surgical pain at three months.
Study population
Elective abdominal surgery involving a skin incision at least 8 cm in length, including open inguinal herniorraphy, non-cardiac thoracic surgery, including mastectomy, breast reconstruction surgery and VATS, and major orthopaedic surgery (hip, knee and shoulder arthroplasty and spinal surgery).
Study duration
Five years.
Main study
The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council 2017
A$4,823,395
The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council 2023
A$967027
Pilot study
Reduction Of Chronic Post-surgical Pain with Ketamine - A pilot study
A$5000 ANZCA Pilot grant 2013
A$47618 ANZCA Project grant 2014
Biomarker determinants of ketamine response status in the ROCKet trial
ANZCA Project Grant 2020
A$63,000
Long term follow up study of chronic post-surgical pain in the ROCKet Trial
ANZCA Project Grant 2023
A$70,000
Biomarker determinants of ketamine response status in the ROCKet trial
Principal investigator: Professor Philip Peyton
Delirium sub-study
Principal investigator: Associate Professor Lis Evered
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry registration number: ACTRN12617001619336.
For further information about ROCKet and the sub-studies, please contact the ROCKet Project Manager, Sofia Sidiropoulos by email.