Background : PropofoL is a widely used anesthetic agent. Pain at injection site is acommon problem. Ketamine has been reported to be effective inreducing propofot- induced pain.Objective: To compare the efficacy of intravenous preemptive with ketamine10 mg and lidocaine 40 mg in reducing the frequency and severityof pain due to propofoL injection.Methods: ln this prospective, randomized, placebo-controlLed, double-b[indedstudy, 2t0 patients with ASA physical status l-ll undergoing electivesurgery under generaI anesthesia were randomLy aLlocated into3 groups. Group S received normal saline; group L received 40 mg of[idocaine and group K received 10 mg of ketamine. Forty-fire secondsafter the preemptive bolus, patients were injected with 2 mg/kg ofpropofoL into the dorsal hand vein. Pain assessment was made1,5 seconds after injection of propofol using 4- point verbal ratingscale (0 = none, 1 = miLd, 2 = moderate, 3 = severe)Statistical anatysis : Analysis of variance (ANOVA), chi - square or Kruskat-Wallis test wereused where appropriate for comparing data among the three groups.lf ANOVA identified significant differences, LSD test was used for posthoc analysis. P vatue < 0.05 considered statistica[Ly significant.Resutts The overall incidence of propofol injection pain was 77.1.o/o of patientsin the control group as compared to 25.7o/o with ketamine 10 mgno significant differences between ketamine and lidocaine groups(p = 0.08). The incidence of moderate to severe pain was [ower Inketamine and Lidocaine groups compared with the contro[ group(14.3o/o, t8.6o/o and 5 t.4o/o respectively).Conctusion:Pretreatment with ketamine 10 mg and lidocaine 40 mg were equallyeffective reducing pain during propofol injection.