Perioperative support for surgical patients.
Anxiety, chronic pain, trauma history, and existential distress affect surgical recovery. We partner with surgical teams to address them — structured, clinician-led preparation and recovery built around your surgical date.
minimum arrival before the surgical date
post-treatment window before departure
We do not modify surgical or anesthetic management.
Built around the surgical date.
Personalized plan, consistent shape. What a referred patient traveling to Los Angeles can expect:
A call with our clinical director, completed before your patient travels.
Integrative medical consultation, surgical clearance documentation where needed, and a preparation session with a licensed therapist.
Your team operates. We do not modify surgical or anesthetic management.
Pre-operative ketamine is scheduled a minimum of 48 hours before surgery.
A monitored session paired with dedicated integration within 24 to 72 hours; acupuncture where appropriate.
Departure 48 to 72 hours after treatment, with follow-up coordination and a referral to a trusted provider near home.
One team, across both sides of the operation.
Integrative medicine, psychiatry, ketamine-assisted therapy, acupuncture, functional nutrition, and women’s health — one coordinated itinerary around your procedure and timeline.
Discovery call
Integrative medical consultation
Surgical clearance documentation
Preparation session with a licensed therapist
Ketamine-assisted therapy — where clinically indicated
Acupuncture
Ketamine and integration therapy
Psychotherapy and psychiatric support — EMDR, CBT, somatic, pain-focused
Integrative follow-up — including hormonal recovery
Functional nutrition consultation
Acupuncture
Follow-up coordination for out-of-state patients
Where clinically indicated, pre-surgical ketamine-assisted therapy addresses preoperative anxiety, and research suggests a window of enhanced neuroplasticity that integration therapy is designed to use. Full service detail is in the referral packet.
A growing evidence base, read honestly.
The perioperative literature is growing quickly. Here is what the randomized trials and meta-analyses report, with the strength of the evidence stated alongside it.
In randomized trials, S-ketamine improved quality of recovery scores on postoperative days 1 and 2, spanning physical comfort, pain, and emotional state.
J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth 2022 · BMC Anesthesiol 2023
A 15-trial meta-analysis found reduced postoperative depression scores at days 1, 3, and 7, persisting long term. In cardiac valve surgery, a single esketamine dose cut day-7 depression prevalence from 31 to 7 percent. A randomized trial in breast and thyroid surgery found a sub-anaesthetic S-ketamine dose lowered both anxiety and pain scores on days 1 through 3.
Mol Psychiatry 2023 · Pharmacol Res 2025 · Pain Physician 2023
Meta-analytic data show reduced early pain scores and lower 24-hour opioid use, though the authors rate this analgesic evidence low to very low certainty.
Anaesth Crit Care Pain Med 2026 · J Pain Res 2026
These trials studied ketamine given around the time of surgery. Our program is outpatient ketamine-assisted psychotherapy — a screened, prepared patient, a monitored session with a therapist present, and dedicated integration after. We decline patients with contraindications.
Read the full literature review →Which of your patients this is for.
Patients undergoing elective or planned procedures with one or more of the following:
Preoperative anxiety or existential distress around a diagnosis or procedure
Chronic pain with a psychological component — CRPS, neuropathic pain, central sensitization, fibromyalgia
Psychiatric history that may complicate recovery — treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, anxiety
Oncologic surgery and the psychological weight of a cancer diagnosis
Post-surgical challenges — mood disruption, pain management difficulty, adjustment to physical change
Out-of-state patients traveling to Los Angeles for surgery who need coordinated, time-efficient care
Send us the patient. We handle everything after that.
Share contact information. That is the whole ask.
Our clinical director completes intake and builds the itinerary around your surgical date.
Clinical updates at intake, after each treatment phase, and at close.
We obtain patient consent to communicate with referring providers at the start of every engagement, and we do not modify surgical or post-operative medical management without your knowledge.
The questions referring teams actually ask.
Referring a patient is straightforward. Share patient contact information with our team and we handle everything from there. Your team receives clinical updates at intake, after each treatment phase, and at the close of the program. We obtain patient consent to communicate with referring providers at the start of every engagement, and we do not modify surgical or post-operative medical management without your knowledge.
Yes, when administered by trained clinical staff in a supervised setting. Ketamine has been used in perioperative medicine for over 50 years. At subanesthetic doses, side effects are transient and managed inside the monitored session window. We conduct a full clinical assessment for every patient and do not proceed where contraindications are present.
Yes. With patient consent, we communicate clinical summaries to referring surgeons and any other providers involved in the patient’s care. We do not modify surgical or anesthetic management.
Patients with active uncontrolled psychosis, mania, or an allergy to ketamine are not candidates for ketamine-assisted therapy. Patients with unstable cardiovascular disease or uncontrolled hypertension require clinical discussion before we proceed. We assess every patient individually and will tell you honestly if we are not the right fit.
Yes. This is a core feature of the out-of-state program. We design itineraries around surgical schedules and can typically accommodate arrival two days pre-operative with post-operative care in the 48 to 72 hour recovery window. A patient cannot receive ketamine therapy the day before surgery, and we recommend one rest day post-operatively before resuming treatment with us.
We work with patients who travel to Los Angeles for surgery and want to make the most of their time here. We build intensive, time-efficient itineraries around the surgical schedule, coordinate every appointment, prepare intake documentation in advance, and make sure patients arrive at their procedure prepared and supported. Patients must arrive with enough time to complete their personalized care plan before the surgical date.
Yes. Oncology and palliative care is a specific area of clinical focus at Mystic Health. We work with patients navigating cancer diagnoses, surgical treatment decisions, and the existential and psychological dimensions of serious illness, alongside their oncology team.
