Adults: Tablet: The recommended dose is 10 mg every 4 to 6 hours. It should be used short-term only, up to 7 days, and is not recommended for chronic use. Doses exceeding 40 mg per day are not recommended.
Injection: Ketorolac injection may be given as a single dose or as multiple doses, on a regular or as-needed schedule, for managing moderately severe, acute pain that requires analgesia at the opioid level, usually in a postoperative setting. When giving ketorolac injection, the IV bolus must be given over no less than 15 seconds. IM administration should be given slowly and deeply into the muscle. The analgesic effect begins within 30 minutes, with maximum effect in 1 to 2 hours after dosing by IV or IM. The duration of analgesic effect is usually 4 to 6 hours.
Single dose treatment, IM dosing in adults: patients under 65 years of age should receive one dose of 60 mg. Patients over 65 years of age, those who are renally impaired, and those under 50 kg of body weight should receive one dose of 30 mg.
IV dosing in adults: patients under 65 years of age should receive one dose of 30 mg. Patients over 65 years of age, those who are renally impaired, and those under 50 kg of body weight should receive one dose of 15 mg.
IV or IM dosing for children aged 2 to 16 years: for IM dosing, one dose of 1 mg per kg of body weight up to a maximum of 30 mg. For IV dosing, one dose of 0.5 mg per kg of body weight up to a maximum of 15 mg.
Multiple dose treatment by IV or IM: patients under 65 years of age should receive a recommended dose of 30 mg ketorolac injection every 6 hours, and the maximum daily dose should not exceed 120 mg. Patients over 65 years of age, renally impaired patients, and patients under 50 kg should receive a recommended dose of 15 mg ketorolac injection every 6 hours, and the maximum daily dose for these groups should not exceed 60 mg. For breakthrough pain, the dose or frequency of ketorolac tromethamine should not be increased.
Conversion from parenteral to oral therapy: ketorolac tablets may be used either as monotherapy or as follow-on therapy to parenteral ketorolac. When ketorolac tablets are used as follow-on therapy to parenteral ketorolac, the total combined daily dose of ketorolac from both oral and parenteral routes should not exceed 120 mg in younger adult patients, or 60 mg in elderly patients, on the day the formulation is changed. On the days that follow, oral dosing should not exceed the recommended daily maximum of 40 mg. Ketorolac IM should be replaced by ketorolac tablets as soon as feasible, and the total duration of combined parenteral and oral treatment should not exceed 5 days.
Eye drops: adults should use 1 drop in each eye 4 times daily.