Caffeine citrate treatment for extremely premature infants with apnea: population pharmacokinetics, absolute bioavailability, and implications for therapeutic drug monitoring.

The objective of this study was to develop a population model of the pharmacokinetics (PK) of caffeine after orogastric or intravenous administration to extremely premature neonates with apnea of prematurity who were to undergo extubation from ventilation. Infants of gestational age <30 weeks were randomly allocated to receive maintenance caffeine citrate dosing of either 5 or 20 mg/kg/d. Four blood samples were drawn at prerandomized times from each infant during caffeine treatment.