PHAR4811 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Low Birth Weight, Pediatrics, Cytochrome P450
Document Summary
Children are not simply smaller adults", they make up their own population with a need for specialised patient care. Provision of safe and effective drug therapy in infants, children and adolescents. There are pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic differences, including faster clearance and a high volume of distribution, physiological, developmental, psychological and pharmacological specificities. Premature neonate: neonate born at <37 weeks gestational age. Term neonate: neonate born at 37 weeks 0 days to 41 weeks 6 days (average ~40 weeks) gestational age. Gestational age (ga): the time from conception until birth, defined as number of weeks from the first day of mother"s last menstrual period (lmp) Postmenstrual age (pma): pma = ga + pna. Effect of age on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs. Changes in the proportion of body water and fat. Variations in the activity and rates of maturation of liver enzymes.