Abstract:
Children, especially infants, differ from adults in the way they respond to drugs. These differences became apparent in the 1950s following a number of adverse drug events, including fatal cardiovascular collapse in infants treated with chloramphenicol and an increase in kernicterus among newborns treated with sulfonamides. Pediatric responses to drugs are determined by a large number of factors that change independently of one another during growth and development. The factors determining pediatric responses to drugs can be divided into those affecting pharmacokinetics (what the body does to the drug) and those affecting pharmacodynamics (what the drug does to the body). The aim of this chapter is to review these factors and describe how they affect the pharmacology of selected anesthetic drugs in infants and children.