Clinical Pharmacology of Antiinfective Drugs
Neonates and young infants are at risk for serious bacterial, viral, and fungal infections. Dosing of antiinfective drugs in young infants is challenging. Effective antimicrobial treatment typically begins with empiric therapy at a dose that is most likely to cure the infection with the minimum risk of toxic effects. To select the correct dosage, clinicians need to understand and apply the principles of pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD). Dosing recommendations are constantly evolving as more PK studies are performed in premature and term neonates. This chapter will help clinicians apply basic pharmacology and PK-PD principles to more than 20 antiinfective drugs, to guide optimal therapy for neonatal infections. A comprehensive review of the pharmacology, PK-PD, and safety literature is provided for the most common bacterial, viral, and fungal medications. Tables are organized by drug class or specific type of infection and provide succinct summaries of essential PK-PD knowledge and clinical pearls that guide dosing. This revision highlights major advances in our understanding of the PK/PD and safety of antimicrobial medications.
