A comparison of Canadian general pediatric dosing publications.

A comparison of the general pediatric dosing guidelines published in Canada was conducted. Institutions that publish pediatric dosing guidelines as a separate publication or as part of the hospital formulary were mailed a survey of questions to describe their publication. Publications that met the inclusion criteria were evaluated using 12 assessment criteria: approval or submissions by medical specialty groups, drug inclusion, dosing guidelines, dosing in organ failure, pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic parameters, therapeutic guidelines, intravenous and oral administration guidelines, adverse drug reactions/drug interactions, referencing, drug acquisition costs, organization and readability. Four Canadian pediatric centres satisfied the criteria for publishing general pediatric dosing guidelines. These were reviewed by the process of formulary selection (in alphabetical order by city): Formulary of Drugs and Dosing Manual (Halifax), Formulary of Drugs (Toronto), Drug Dosage Guidelines and Formulary (Vancouver), and Pediatric Drug Dosage Handbook (Winnipeg). Dosing guidelines from published pediatric drug trials have been collated with institutional experience and historical practice to produce a practical source of pediatric dosing information.