Pediatric drug preparations in French hospitals.

Aims. - Drug formulations that are specifically intended for pediatric use have not been widely developed in France and do not adequately meet therape utic needs, particularly as regards hospital requirements. A multicenter st udy was therefore carried out to evaluate the situation. Materials and methods. - A questionnaire was sent out in June 1998 to all F rench university hospital pharmacies and also to those public and private h ospitals known to be involved in pediatric care. Of the 78 questionnaires m ailed, 63 answers were received. The information requested concerned all th e drug formulations prepared in 1997 Results. - Ten out of the 63 hospitals that replied stated that the questio nnaire was not relevant in their particular case. Fifty-three answers were therefore evaluated, i.e., corresponding to data from 35 university hospita ls, 15 public general hospitals, and three private hospitals. For 7,022 ped iatric beds, 1,155,544 units were prepared consisting of 968,520 capsules p repared from 220 active substances, 33,493 liquid preparations for oral int ake, 87,592 parenteral nutrition bags, 48,225 injectable antibiotic drugs, 10,663 injectable anticancer agents, and 7,051 miscellaneous sterile prepar ations. The most frequently prescribed active substances were, in decreasin g order of importance as follows: diphemanil, captopril, fludrocortisone, r anitidine, spironolactone, and ursodesoxycholic acid. A marked heterogeneit y was displayed in galenic forms and drug dosages. Conclusion. - in conclusion, this study has shown the most commonly prescri bed drugs and the most frequently prepared dosages for pediatric use. Drug manufacturing companies may find it an useful source of information on the limited pediatric market; it may also encourage pediatricians to homogenize and optimize their therapeutic strategies and pharmacists to establish spe cific quality-control procedures. The authors recommend that national guide lines be set up, and it is suggested that the health authorities could part icipate in organizing the means whereby drugs for pediatric use are made mo re readily available. (C) 2000 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.