Clinical Research Directory

Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Ceftazidime in Pediatric ICU Patients

Sponsor: Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

Summary

Mortality benefit has been proven with early antibiotic administration in sepsis. Antimicrobial therapy should be based on early achievement of effective drug concentrations by optimizing the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics of individual drugs. Optimal dosing in the critically ill patient can be challenging with the rapidly changing physiology of sepsis during the first days of hospitalization with capillary leak, fluid overload, changes in cardiac output, and alterations renal clearance. Ceftazidime is the preferred beta-lactam for empiric treatment of sepsis at Lurie Children's Hospital because of its anti-pseudomonal and anti-enteric bacilli coverage, however, the majority of pharmacokinetic data currently published in pediatrics does not include Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients. Adult pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics data suggest that critically ill adults with high level of illness severity may benefit from continuous or extended infusion beta lactam therapy to optimize the therapeutic concentration particularly for pathogens that are relatively resistant to beta-lactams. Understanding the changing pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics of ceftazidime with the progression of illness in the ICU may help determine if current dosing regimens are adequate to maintain appropriate drug concentrations to optimize antimicrobial treatment.

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