Antibacterial therapy during pregnancy and breastfeeding

Abstract

The use of drugs during pregnancy and breastfeeding remains one of the least studied, but important issues in pharmacology today. When choosing medicinal products during pregnancy, one of the crucial principles is to ensure the safety of the embryo and fetus. Among the generally accepted rules aimed at eliminating fetal risk, a decrease in the dosage of the drug to the lower limit of the therapeutic range is usually named. However, one should take into account the changes that occur in the body of a pregnant woman: the body weight and the volume of circulating blood rise, the excretion of drugs is accelerated (the clearance increases), which, on the contrary, requires an increase in the dosages of individual drugs to maintain therapeutic efficacy. Antibacterial drugs (ABD) are the most difficult group of drugs to use, since they require taking into account not only the mechanism of action of drugs, but also the basics of clinical microbiology. ABD occupy a special place in clinical practice, as they are one of the most frequently prescribed classes of drugs.