The kinetic profile of gentamicin in premature neonates

The kinetic profile of gentamicin in premature infants has been studied to enable the development of optimized dosage schedules for neonatal intensive -care units and to stress the relationship between the pharmacokinetic para meters and several demographic, developmental and clinical factors which mi ght be associated with changes in gentamicin disposition. Sixty-eight newborn patients of 24- to 34-weeks gestational age and 600-310 0 g current weight in their first week of life, undergoing routine therapeu tic drug monitoring of their gentamicin serum levels, were included in this retrospective analysis. Gentamicin pharmacokinetic parameters were determined through non-linear re gression by using a single-compartment open model. By regression analysis t he current weight (g) was shown to be the strongest co-variate, and both ge ntamicin clearance (L h(-1)) and volume of distribution (L) had to be norma lized. Additionally, gentamicin clearance depended on gestational age with a cut-off at 30 weeks, which allowed the division of the overall population into two subsets (< 30 weeks and between 30-34 weeks of gestational age). The younger neonates (<30 weeks of gestational age) showed a lower gentamic in clearance (0.0288 vs 0.0340 L h(-1) kg(-1)), a slightly higher volume of distribution (0.464 vs 0.435 L kg(-1)), and a longer half-life (11.17 vs 8 .88 h) compared with the older subgroup (30-34 weeks of gestational age). On the basis of the pharmacokinetic parameters obtained, we suggest loading doses of 3.7 and 3.5 mg kg(-1) for the two subgroups of neonates (<30 week s and 30-34 weeks of gestational age), respectively. The appropriate mainte nance doses in accordance with the characteristics of the patients should b e 2.8 mg kg(-1)/24 h and 2.6mg kg(-1)/18 h for neonates < 30 weeks and betw een 30-34 weeks of gestational age, respectively. Finally, when compared wi th previous studies, the information obtained on the pharmacokinetics and d eterminants of the pharmacokinetic variability of gentamicin in neonates wa s shown to be consistent.