Vol.55 No.6 November 2007

Survey on once-daily therapy with ceftriaxone for pediatric bacterial infections

Satoshi Iwata^{1, 2)}, Hiromi Kumon²⁾, Yoshihito Niki²⁾, Nobuki Aoki²⁾, Mitsuo Kaku²⁾, Kouichi Wada²⁾, Shigeru Kohno²⁾, Keisuke Sunakawa²⁾, Hiroshige Mikamo²⁾, Yoshio Takesue²⁾, Naomasa Gotoh²⁾ and Kouichi Monden²⁾

¹⁾Department of Pediatrics, National Hospital Organization Tokyo Medical Center, 2-5-1 Higashigaoka, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan
²⁾Clinical Research Committee, Japanese Society of Chemotherapy

Abstract

The use of antibacterial agents must have had a broad antibacterial spectrum and a strong antibacterial effect, and the medication plan of an antibacterial agent also considers pharmacokinetics in the treatment of bacterial infection. It is important to determine a medication interval based on "time above MIC" from a PK/PD in β-lactam antibacterial agents.
Ceftriaxone(CTRX), an injectable cephem antibacterial agent, has a broad antibacterial spectrum and strong antibacterial effect, and showed sufficient antibacterial effect in once-daily treatment and that the half-life in blood is very long. The Japanese Society of Chemotherapy strongly desires the approval for a once-daily dosing regimen of CTRX.
A survey on once-daily treatment with CTRX in pediatric bacterial infections yielded the following results.
Some 51% of respondents (28/55 doctors) had used CTRX in once-daily treatment. The distribution of dosage and term were 50-59 mg/kg for 5 days in inpatients and 20-59 mg/kg for 3 days in outpatients.
Advantages included outpatient use, administration without hospitalization equipment, maintenance of patient and family QOL and cutting of medical expenses after approval of once-daily CTRX treatment. Disadvantages included difficulty of the correspondence to the patients' emergency and the correspondence to adverse reactions of CTRX such as a drug allergy. The intentions to suppose that respondents want to use once-daily CTRX treatment were 80% for outpatients and 51% for inpatients respectively.
We consider that sufficient information about advantages and disadvantages of once-daily CTRX treatment should be offered to physicians for an appropriate use of this regimen.

Key word

ceftriaxone, child, bacterial infection, once daily intravenous administration

Received

August 17, 2007

Accepted

September 14, 2007

Jpn. J. Chemother. 55 (6): 463-472, 2007