Journal of clinical pharmacy and therapeutics
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Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a life-saving system used for critically ill patients with cardiac and/or respiratory failure. The pharmacokinetics (PK) of drugs can change in patients undergoing ECMO, which can result in therapeutic failure or drug toxicity requiring further management of drug complications. In this review, we discussed changes in the PK of antibiotic, antiviral, antituberculosis and antifungal agents administered to adult patients on ECMO. These drugs are crucial for managing infections, which commonly occur during ECMO. ⋯ The impact of ECMO on PK varies among drugs in adult patients, and there is no consistent correlation between the effects observed in adult and infant studies. This review suggested that doses of imipenem, oseltamivir, rifampicin and voriconazole should be adjusted and therapeutic drug monitoring is needed when ECMO is used in adult patients. In the future, large PK trials in adults on ECMO are needed to provide optimal dosing guidelines. A PK/PD modelling approach will be useful for determining the precise impact of ECMO and other factors that contribute to PK changes for each drug. Finally, it is important to develop dosing guidelines based on PK/PD modelling studies that can be used in clinical practice.
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Triazoles including fluconazole, itraconazole, voriconazole and posaconazole are now widely used, whereas in some countries, they are reportedly used in inappropriate way frequently; thus, it is clearly a matter of urgency to regulate the use of triazole drugs. Several studies have made good attempts to evaluate antifungal use, but they did not cover the entire medication process. This study aimed to establish indicators for the appropriate use of triazoles for invasive fungal disease, so as to produce a reference for evaluating and standardizing the rational application of triazole antifungals. ⋯ Contrasted with previous studies that have only focused on a subset of indicators, this research establishes comprehensive indicators for evaluating the use of triazoles for invasive fungal disease and which cover most of the medication process: indications, therapeutic timing, duration of drug usage, drug dosage, administration method, drug interactions, medication in specific populations and pharmaceutical care. The indicators can reflect the characteristic of triazoles throughout the process of clinical administration for an invasive fungal disease, and it will be helpful as references when hospital administrators are regulating the use of antifungals.