Pediatric Critical Care Pharmacology

This chapter includes essential information about the basic principles of pharmacology and relates them to unique characteristics of critically ill children. The author provides a succinct summary of fundamentals of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, including absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination. First- and zero-order kinetics are reviewed, along with examples of drugs commonly used in the intensive care unit that follow those patterns of metabolism. The chapter also includes crucial information about how development from birth affects the various aspects of pharmacology. The effects on drug metabolism of shock, and renal and hepatic dysfunction are provided, along with drug–drug interactions, including commonly used drugs in critical care that induce or inhibit enzyme activity.