Pharmacokinetics of Paracetamol
in the Neonate and Infant after
Administration of Propacetamol
Chlorhydrate

Autret, E; Jp, Dutertre; Breteau, M; Ap, Jonville; Furet, Y.; Laugier, J

doi:10.1159/000457553

Cited by 70 publications

(52 citation statements)

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“…In five neonates aged Ͻ10 days administered paracetamol (as propracetamol, a prodrug of paracetamol) clearance was found to be 2.5 ml/min./kg, compared with 6.1 ml/min./ kg for infants between 1-12 months (Autret et al 1993). Levy et al (1975) found a mean paracetamol half-life in 12 neonates aged Ͻ3 days of 3.5 hr, compared with 1.9-2.2 in adults .…”

Section: Paracetamolmentioning

confidence: 98%

Neonatal Hepatic Drug Elimination

Gow

Ghabrial

Smallwood

et al. 2001

Pharmacology & Toxicology

104

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After the transition from in utero to newborn life, the neonate becomes solely reliant upon its own drug clearance processes to metabolise xenobiotics. Whilst most studies of neonatal hepatic drug elimination have focussed upon in vitro expression and activities of drug-metabolising enzymes, the rapid physiological changes in the early neonatal period of life also need to be considered. There are dramatic changes in neonatal liver blood flow and hepatic oxygenation due to the loss of the umbilical blood supply, the increasing portal vein blood flow, and the gradual closure of the ductus venosus shunt during the first week of life. These changes which may well affect the capacity of neonatal hepatic drug metabolism. The hepatic expression of cytochromes P450 1A2, 2C, 2D6, 2E1 and 3A4 develop at different rates in the postnatal period, whilst 3A7 expression diminishes. Hepatic glucuronidation in the human neonate is relatively immature at birth, which contrasts with the considerably more mature neonatal hepatic sulfation activity. Limited in vivo studies show that the human neonate can significantly metabolise xenobiotics but clearance is considerably less compared with the older infant and adult. The neonatal population included in pharmacological studies is highly heterogeneous with respect to age, body weight, ductus venosus closure and disease processes, making it difficult to interpret data arising from human neonatal studies. Studies in the perfused foetal and neonatal sheep liver have demonstrated how the oxidative and conjugative hepatic elimination of drugs by the intact organ is significantly increased during the first week of life, highlighting that future studies will need to consider the profound physiological changes that may influence neonatal hepatic drug elimination shortly after birth.The development of clinical pharmacology has resulted in a more rational approach to drug therapy, as well as a deeper understanding of the factors capable of influencing drug disposition, and hence drug effects. Of these factors, age is of great importance. However, substantial differences in drug disposition not only exist between neonates and adults, but also among premature neonates, term neonates, infants and children.During the last two decades drug disposition in the neonatal period has been studied extensively. A major impetus for these studies seems to have been a series of incidents involving illness or death following the administration of drugs at ratios of dose/body weight innocuous in an adult (Craft et al. 1974;Gershanik et al. 1982). These studies have shown that the transition from neonate to childhood is characterised by the ontogeny of all of the processes of drug absorption, distribution, hepatic metabolism and renal excretion, with the development of hepatic drug metabolism being particularly important.The extent to which the neonatal drug-metabolising en-

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