Pharmacokinetic aspects of pediatric drug therapy

: Pharmacokinetic processes of absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion are modified during biological maturation and these changes give rise to two characteristics of pediatric therapeutics: drug pharmacokinetics both changes throughout childhood and differs from adults, and most drugs show large interpatient variability in this patient population. Therapeutic problems that arise are potentially solvable by pharmacokinetic approach, where therapeutic monitoring is necessary in order to individualize therapy and define drug pharmacokinetics in special pediatric groups and situations. To realize this goal, good collaboration between the clinician and therapeutic consultant is extremely important. The consultant has to understand pharmacokinetic principles and apply them in therapy. Determination of initial drug doses can be done by several methods based on age, body mass or surface area, although from pharmacokinetic aspect the method based on volume of distribution value in adults (Vd in l/kg) is recommended.