Paediatric drugs
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Review
Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modeling of anesthetics in children: therapeutic implications.
Modeling the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of anesthetics in children is performed as a response to the clinical need for safe and efficacious administration of drugs with a low therapeutic index. Rates and concentrations of these drugs, which are the primary parameters used by anesthesiologists, depend on physiologic parameters that are markedly affected by development. Volatile anesthetics have been used for >50 years in pediatric patients. ⋯ Pharmacodynamic interactions between general anesthesia and regional anesthesia need to be modeled. This is one of the future tasks for pharmacokineticists. Methods such as the Dixon up-and-down allocation and the isobolographic technique are promising in this field.
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All children aged > or = 3 years should have an annual blood pressure (BP) measurement taken during a routine physical examination. Physicians should become familiar with recommended pediatric normative BP tables. BP above the 95th percentile may require drug therapy. ⋯ CCAs are a class of antihypertensives that are safe and effective in pediatric patients. They have relatively few adverse effects and are well tolerated by children. This article reviews CCAs as antihypertensives in the management of pediatric hypertension.
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The management of children with end-stage chronic liver disease and acute liver failure mandates a multidisciplinary approach and intense monitoring. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in developing specific and supportive medical measures, but studies and publications have mainly concerned adult patients. Therapeutic approaches to complications of end-stage chronic liver disease and acute liver failure (e.g. refractory ascites, hepatorenal syndrome, encephalopathy, and cerebral edema) that may be applied to children are reviewed in this article. ⋯ There are no specific medical therapies or devices that can correct all of the functions of the liver. Apart from a few metabolic diseases presenting with severe liver dysfunction for which specific medical therapies may preclude the need for liver transplantation, liver transplantation still remains the only definitive therapy in most instances of end-stage chronic liver disease and acute liver failure. Future research should focus on gaining a better understanding of the mechanisms responsible for liver cell death and liver regeneration, as well as developments in hepatocyte transplantation and liver-directed gene therapy.
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There is a paucity of clinical trials work in children, which leads to the frequent use of off-label and unlicensed medications in this very vulnerable group. Clinical trials work in children may be more difficult than in adults, and there are certainly ethical constraints. However, the differences between adults and children, and at different stages of childhood development, mandate strategies to improve this situation rather than continually relying on extrapolation from adult studies. ⋯ Disease phenotypes may be completely different in children; for example, wheeze in infants is not miniature adult asthma. Clinical trial design must be practical, and a trial is more likely to succeed if a simple design is utilized, with minimal interference with school work and the work of carers. The new UK initiative, 'Medicines for Children', should go a long way towards addressing the problem, and increase the evidence base for the utilization of medications in pediatric practice.
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Probiotics, defined as microbial cell preparations or components of microbial cells that have a beneficial effect on the health and well being of the host, have traditionally been used to treat and prevent a variety of infections. Beneficial effects of probiotics in acute infectious diarrhea in children seem to be: (i) moderate; (ii) strain-dependent; (iii) dose dependent; (iv) significant in watery diarrhea and viral gastroenteritis, but non-existent in invasive, bacterial diarrhea; and (v) more evident when treatment with probiotics is initiated early in the course of disease. Three large, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) provide evidence of a very modest effect (statistically significant, but of questionable clinical importance) of some probiotic strains (Lactobaccillus GG, Lactobaccillus reuteri, Bifodobacterium lactis) on the prevention of community-acquired diarrhea. ⋯ Only very few probiotic strains have been tested rigorously in RCTs. Many questions remain to be answered. Future clinical trials should evaluate carefully selected, precisely defined probiotic strains and address clinically important endpoints.