Pediatric Obesity: Pharmacokinetic Alterations and Effects on Antimicrobial Dosing.

Limited data exist for appropriate drug dosing in obese children. This comprehensive review summarizes pharmacokinetic (PK) alterations that occur with age and obesity, and these effects on antimicrobial dosing. A thorough comparison of different measures of body weight and specific antimicrobial agents including cefazolin, cefepime, ceftazidime, daptomycin, doripenem, gentamicin, linezolid, meropenem, piperacillin-tazobactam, tobramycin, vancomycin, and voriconazole is presented.

Improved vancomycin dosing in children using area under the curve exposure.

Background: : Our objectives were to (1) determine the pharmacokinetic indices of vancomycin in pediatric patients; and (2) compare attainment of 2 target exposures: area under curve (AUC) / minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ≥400 and trough concentration ≥15 mcg/mL.

Methods: : The population-based pharmacokinetic modeling was performed using NONMEM 7.2 for children ≥3 months old who received vancomycin for ≥48 hours from 2003 to 2011.