Drug use density in critically ill children and newborns: Analysis of various methodologies

Abstract

In critically ill children, drug use density of vancomycin is significantly less when evaluated by the DDD method compared with the prescribed daily dose method, a more appropriate method in children. However, the simplest and most accurate method of assessing drug use density is the number of days of drug use method, which allows comparison of drug use density between different pediatric facilities or clinical units.

Prospective Surveillance of Antibiotic Use in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

“…27,49,51,52 It is not known which metric best represents the degree of antibiotic exposure and thus the impact on the infant's microbiome. The optimal metric for antibiotic use in the NICU has not been defined and requires further study.…”

Estimating pediatric inpatient medication use in the United States

“…We also did not attempt to quantify medication dose and number of administrations, but categorized patients as having ever received the medication during the hospital stay. Others have explored various measures of use ranging from defined daily doses, prescribed daily doses, days of drug use per 100 patient days, and number of doses administered/1000 patient days 16, 17. Further studies are also needed to describe the amount of off‐label drug use in the pediatric inpatient setting 18…”

Evaluating antimicrobial appropriateness in a tertiary care pediatric ICU in Saudi Arabia: A retrospective cohort study

“…None of these studies addressed the appropriateness of antibiotics, and only Balkhy et al [22] used the metric DOT per 1000 patient-days to report the consumption of antibiotics. The DOT and DOT per 1000 patient-days are the metrics of choice for measuring antibiotic consumption in the pediatric population as recommended by the National Healthcare Safety Network and CDC [26,30].…”