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Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
Kategorie: Fachliteratur
Sprache: Englisch

Beschreibung

Neonatal Formulary is a unique publication that provides comprehensive guidance on the safe use of all the drugs prescribed during pregnancy and commonly given to babies during labour, delivery, and the first year of life.

This new edition provides improved and detailed coverage of the many drugs that are given to women during pregnancy and during lactation where the baby's welfare must be borne in mind as well as that of the mother. Thus the whole 'pregnancy through to parenthood' journey is treated as a continuous event with information about drug use and the effects of drugs at all stages of the development from fetus to infant.

Containing far more detail than is available in the British National Formulary for Children and with a companion website featuring updates related to specific drugs and dosing, Neonatal Formulary is an essential guide for neonatologists, neonatal nurses, hospital pharmacists, obstetric staff, advanced nurse practitioners and for all health care professionals caring for pregnant women and their infants in the first year of life.

This title is also available as a mobile App from MedHand Mobile Libraries. Buy it now from iTunes, Google Play or the MedHand Store.

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Cover

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Title page

Introduction

Important advisory statement

List of Tables

c11

Table 1 Drugs used to combat infection, and their clearance from the body in babies with severe renal failure before or during peritoneal dialysis (PD).

Table 2 Solutions for neonatal PD.

c12

Table 3 Relationship between body weight (kg) (full units down left side and part units across the top) and surface area (m

), for example a baby weighing 2.3 kg will have a surface area of 0.17 m

c13

Table 4 Effects of therapeutic hypothermia on medications.

c15

Composition (per 100 ml) of human milk and anti-reflux formula milks.

List of Illustrations

c03

Fig. 1 Baby with a theophylline half-life of 24 hours. The therapeutic range (8–15 mg/l) is shaded. SVT, supraventricular tachycardia.

c12

Fig. 2 Relationship between body weight and surface area.

c15

Figure 1 The relationship between partial pressure of arterial oxygen and functional oxygen saturation (a) and how this translates to readings on the saturation monitor (b).

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

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About the companion website

A free companion resources site for this book is available at:

www.neonatalformulary.com

The website lists each drug described in the book, with:

Updates and new material

New – Monographs on new drugs available since the publication of the book.

Updates – Revisions to monographs revised since the publication of the book.

Comments – Temporary postings, e.g., a change in usage.

Commentaries – Permanent website commentaries about a drug.

Web archive – Drug monographs for little-used drugs no longer included in the book.

Useful links

Cochrane reviews – Links to relevant Cochrane reviews for listed drugs.

UK guidelines – Links to UK management guidelines for listed drugs.

WHO – Identification of drugs classified as essential by the World Health Organisation.

E-mail alerting

Feedback

If you would like to see any drug not currently mentioned appear in the next edition or to provide feedback on the text, please contact the editorial team using [email protected]

Neonatal Formulary 7

Drug Use in Pregnancy and the First Year of Life

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Registered officeJohn Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

The contents of this work are intended to further general scientific research, understanding, and discussion only and are not intended and should not be relied upon as recommending or promoting a specific method, diagnosis, or treatment by health science practitioners for any particular patient. The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. In view of ongoing research, equipment modifications, changes in governmental regulations, and the constant flow of information relating to the use of medicines, equipment, and devices, the reader is urged to review and evaluate the information provided in the package insert or instructions for each medicine, equipment, or device for, among other things, any changes in the instructions or indication of usage and for added warnings and precautions. Readers should consult with a specialist where appropriate. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. No warranty may be created or extended by any promotional statements for this work. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any damages arising herefrom.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is applied for.

ISBN 978-1-118-81959-3

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Introduction

NNF7 has been designed to provide compact, up-to-date, referenced advice on the prescribing of drugs and their safe and accurate administration, during pregnancy, labour and the first year of life. While the book's main focus is on the baby, many drugs that are given to women during pregnancy or lactation have a potential impact on the fetus or baby in a way that is equally important. This compendium therefore also gives advice on maternal medications.

The number of drugs used in late pregnancy and the first few weeks of life continues to rise rapidly, although, in many cases, manufacturers have not yet sought market authorisation to recommend neonatal use. Globally the use of medications that are either not licensed or, if they are licensed, are used for indications out with the terms of their product license (‘off label') is common in neonatal units. While a lot of general information on drugs may be given in the manufacturer's summary of product characteristics (SPC), advice on use in young children is often non-existent. Since advice in the SPC is all that has been seen and approved by regulatory bodies such as the Commission on Human Medicines in the United Kingdom, and since the British National Formulary (BNF) normally limits itself to summarising information that has been so validated, much drug use in the neonate occurs in a hazardous information vacuum. The same can be said for the use of many drugs during pregnancy and lactation. All this makes it increasingly important for midwives and nurses, as well as pharmacists and doctors, to be able to access a reference text that summarises the scattered but extensive therapeutic and pharmacokinetic information that is available on the safe and appropriate use of these products. Information on placental transfer and teratogenicity, and on the extent to which each drug appears in human milk (and the extent to which this matters), is provided for each drug. Where the text merely says that treatment during lactation is safe, it can be taken that the dose ingested by the baby is likely to be less than 5% of the dose taken by the mother on a weight for weight basis, and that no reports have appeared suggesting that the baby could be clinically affected.

Special attention has been paid to the rapid changes that occur in the renal and hepatic handling of some drugs in the first few weeks of life, and the impact of illness and severe prematurity on drug metabolism and drug elimination. Widespread use of therapeutic hypothermia in the treatment of asphyxiated newborn infants brought with it a need to understand the effects of temperature on the medications used in these infants. The symptoms associated with overtreatment are summarised, and the management of toxicity is outlined. Information is also included on the best way to use the few drugs so far known to be of therapeutic benefit to the fetus.

NNF7 also provides information on the main drugs used to modify the diet of babies with congenital enzyme deficiencies (‘inborn errors of metabolism'), a monograph on breast milk fortifiers, and a monograph on the artificial milks (‘formula' milks) for preterm infants most commonly used in the United Kingdom. A guide to some of the artificial milks used in babies with reflux, lactose intolerance and allergy is also included; however, no attempt has been made to list other dietary products or those artificial milks that are used as breast milk substitutes.

While the text predominantly reflects practice in the United Kingdom, medicine is increasingly international in its scope. Every section of the text has been revised with this in mind by a wide range of local, national and overseas collaborators. A wide range of journals have been searched in order to make the advice given in the latest revision as comprehensive and up-to-date as possible, and all relevant Cochrane reviews consulted. Input has also been sought from colleagues with a range of professional expertise in an attempt to ensure that the text reflects a distillate of current opinion. However, in deciding what should eventually find its way into print, it was the advice of those who could provide evidence to support their approach that carried most weight. A consensus driven text could, all too easily, merely reflect what most people are doing rather than what they ought to be doing! The references cited in each entry should make it easier for readers to make up their own minds on such issues.

Part 1 of the book contains important general information on drug storage, licensing and prescribing. Along with advice on drug administration, the care and use of intravascular lines, medication in renal failure and during therapeutic hypothermia, and the recognition, management and reporting of adverse reactions are also included. The information given on individual drugs in Part 2 needs to be interpreted in the light of this general advice; although it is tempting to skip this section the importance of understanding many of the concepts covered cannot be understated.

The second (and largest) part contains monographs on over 230 of the drugs most often used during labour and the first few months of life listed in alphabetical order. Information on a number of blood products and vaccines is included. Each monograph lists the drug's main uses, and the most appropriate dose to give, both in the term and the preterm baby. The neonatal half-life is noted where known, and a note made of those with an unusually large volume of distribution ( V D > 1 l/kg). A brief summary of the drug's discovery and development is usually included. Advice is also provided on how to measure accurately the small volumes frequently required, and how to administer bolus and IV infusions safely. The advice given can, in general, be used to guide management throughout the first year of life. Significant interactions between drugs included in the main section of the compendium are outlined. Adverse effects commonly encountered in infancy, and their management, receive attention, but the SPC should be consulted in respect of other, less common, adverse effects. Information under the heading ‘supply' refers to the formulation most widely used in the United Kingdom. It is important to realise that other strengths and formulations may exist and essential to check the label on the container before giving medicine to any patient. The stated cost is the basic net price (normally quoted in the BNF) when the book went to press, rounded to two significant figures. This information has been included in order to make clinicians more cost conscious but should not be interpreted as representing the pricing policy of any particular hospital. Every monograph concludes with one or more recent key references to the obstetric, perinatal or neonatal literature (from which it is usually possible to identify other key reports).

Part 3 contains brief notes on a further 350 drugs, or groups of drugs, that may be taken by mothers during pregnancy, labour or the puerperium. The drugs mentioned include all the more commonly used products thought to affect the baby either because of placental transfer or because of excretion in human milk. Illicit drug use and legitimate self-medication both receive attention. Entries are almost always linked to two key references that can be used to access additional original studies and reports.

The index at the back of the compendium includes all the UK and US synonyms by which some drugs are occasionally known, and serves to identify more than 50 other drugs only referred to, in passing, within another drug monograph. Various common contractions are also spelt out.

A website was launched in January 2001 (www.neonatalformulary.com). New drugs continue to come onto the market at regular intervals, and further information relating to the use of many of the drugs already contained in the book continues to appear. As a result, the text remains under semi-continuous review. The website also provides longer, more fully referenced, commentaries on some important products, direct access to abstracts of all the relevant Cochrane Reviews and link access to the UK Government's current vaccination policy guidelines. It also contains monographs on a number of drugs that were included in earlier editions of this book, but which do not appear in the present print version (although their existence can still be traced using the index) because they are no longer used as often as they once were. While the publishers plan to continue producing new editions of this compendium approximately once every 3 years, the existence of the website makes it possible to alert readers to all the more important changes that are made to the text just as soon as they are issued.

Important advisory statement

This compendium discusses treatments and drug therapies in both mothers and their babies during the perinatal period. It is the responsibility of the treating clinician, relying on experience and knowledge, to determine dosages and the appropriateness of treatment in their patient. While every effort has been made to check the veracity of the information in this compendium, neither the publisher nor those responsible for compiling this edition assume any responsibility for the consequences of any remaining inaccuracy or for any injury and/or damage to persons or property.

The drugs included in this compendium are predominantly those in current use in neonatal units in the United Kingdom; however, recent updates have increasingly attempted to reflect international practise. Omission should not be taken to imply criticism of a drug's usefulness; neither should inclusion necessarily be seen as a recommendation either. Indeed a number of products are mentioned specifically to alert clinicians to some of the uncertainties or limitations associated with use in infancy. Personal preference and past experience must inevitably influence prescribing practice, and in neonatal practice, more than any other branch of medicine, it is better to use a limited number of carefully evaluated and widely used drugs knowledgeably than to use drugs with which the prescriber is not fully familiar.

Experience shows that it is also dangerous to uncritically use the latest product to reach the market. Too many drugs of proven efficacy in adult medicine have been widely and indiscriminately used during pregnancy and in the neonatal period before the potential hazards associated with their use ever became apparent, sometimes years after their introduction. Examples of these include diethylstilbestrol (given to millions of women to prevent miscarriage and premature delivery) leading to genital tract deformity and vaginal cancer in babies born to these women; chloramphenicol and sulphonamides widely used in the neonatal period some 50 years ago led to many hundreds of deaths that might have otherwise been avoided. Hexachlorophene baths and vitamin K injections also killed several hundred babies before anyone realised what was happening. A worrying number of babies died in the early 1980s before it was realised that preterm babies cannot metabolise one of the bacteriostatic excipients commonly used to ensure the sterility of the water used to ‘flush' the line every time a blood sample is taken or a drug is given (as described in the archived entry on benzyl alcohol).

Sadly such inadvertent drug tragedies are not confined to the past. It took 10 years before people realised that cisapride did little to reduce the incidence of troublesome reflux ‘posseting' and that such use risked triggering cardiac arrhythmia, and it then took another 8 years for many to realise that much the same could be true of domperidone. Evidence emerged some 15 years ago that using acetazolamide to control post-haemorrhagic hydrocephalus did more harm than good, and that the amount of aluminium that often gets infused when a baby is offered parenteral nutrition can cause permanent neurological damage. The harm that was being done to these patients only finally came to light when these forms of treatment were eventually subjected to controlled trial scrutiny. In the same way, concern over the near ‘routine' use of insulin in babies thought to have an ‘abnormally' high blood glucose level only surfaced, quite recently, when this strategy was also scrutinised for the first time in a controlled trial of meaningful size. Conversely however, because early neonatal trials only focused on short-term outcomes, it took 20 years for long-term benefits of early treatment with caffeine to be recognised.

Simultaneous use of several drugs increases the risk of harm from drug interaction. Examples include furosemide with an aminoglycoside, erythromycin with carbamazepine and ibuprofen or indometacin with dexamethasone or hydrocortisone. Errors in drug prescribing and administration occur more frequently when several products are in use at the same time. Almost all drugs are potentially harmful, and some of the drugs most frequently used in the neonatal period are potentially lethal when given in excess. It has been seriously suggested that every hospital drug cupboard should have the motto ‘Is your prescription really necessary?' pinned on the door.

Many paediatric and neonatal texts provide tabular drug lists and dosage guidelines. While these can be a useful aide mémoire, they can give the false impression that all you need to know about a drug is how much to give. These reference tables should never be used on their own, except by somebody who is already fully familiar with all the drug's indications and contraindications, and with all aspects of the drug's pharmacokinetic behaviour (including its behaviour in the sick preterm baby). Information also becomes dated quite quickly, so any text that is more than 2 years old should be used with great caution.

All important amendments made to this regularly revised text after the present edition went to press can be found on the web at: www.neonatalformulary.com.

Contact can be made with the team responsible for the current text and for keeping it up-to-date using the following e-mail address for all such contact: [email protected].

Acknowledgements

This neonatal pharmacopoeia started life in 1978 as a loose-leaf A4 reference folder of commonly used drugs for the neonatal surgical intensive care unit at the Hospital for Sick Children (Fleming Hospital) in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was prepared by Dr. John Inkster, the Fleming Hospital's first Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist, and Dr. Edmund Hey, the Paediatrician from the adjoining Princess Mary Maternity Hospital. It has been updated many times since then and has now expanded considerably, but the format and the basic layout have not changed.

The 1987 and 1989 revisions reflected practice in all the Newcastle units, and the 1991 and 1993 revisions, which drew on the accumulated experience of all the units in the region, were made widely available in pocketbook format by the Northern Regional Health Authority. Both of the hospitals where this book first originated have since closed, and the Regional Health Authority is also now no more. The local Neonatal Network was pleased to find a national publisher for a new pocket version in 1996 and for further new print editions since then.

Since then, input has become progressively more international in scope, as is reflected by the inclusion of drugs for the treatment of malaria in this new update. Nurses, midwives and staff pharmacists have continued to play a part by asking for the inclusion of further new information, and by criticising, firmly but constructively, any lack of clarity in the text. Developments in neonatal medicine are continually occurring; therapeutic hypothermia has become a standard of care for infants with hypoxic–ischaemic encephalopathy and this modality of treatment impacts on how many of the drugs are metabolised, newborn screening programmes are expanding, and, coupled with better prospects for antenatal diagnosis, many inherited metabolic conditions are now being treated earlier and earlier.

Change continues apace, and several important amendments make their appearance with the arrival of this latest update. The book is now available in both paper and electronic formats. Regular updates can be found on the book's website, where an increasing range of supplementary information can also be found. The book's scope has also been expanded to include a number of drugs generally needed only in the management of tropical diseases such as malaria, and the book's contributors come from an increasing number of different countries.

Sadly two of the major driving forces behind previous editions have since died – Edmund Hey in 2009 and Sam Richmond in 2013 however the formulary continues to honour its original vision but at the same time providing up-to-date information about the drugs to which the fetus, neonate and infant may be exposed.

Doctors, midwives, pharmacists, nurses and others who made a significant contribution to the preparation of this and the most recent editions include:

M. Alam, B. Anderson, J. van den Anker, R. Appleton, D. Azzopardi, E. Banda, D. Barker, P. Baxter, A. Bedford-Russell, I. Begg, J. Berrington, A. Bint, E. Boyle, R. Bray, P. Brocklehurst, C. Brook, J. Bunn, T. Cheetham, I. Choonara, J. Clark, M. Coulthard, S. Craig, A. Curley, B. Darlow, T. David, J. Davison, D. Dhawan, L. Duley, D. Elbourne, N. Embleton, A. Emmerson, N. Evans, A. Ewer, A. Fenton, D. Field, T. Flood, P. Fowlie, D. Gardner-Medwin, D. Gibb, R. Gilbert, H. Halliday, A. Hallman, F. Hampton, J. Hawdon, R. Hearns, P. Heath, D. Isaacs, K. Ives, L. Jones, S. Jones, C. Kennedy, S. Kenyon, H. Kirpalani, W. Lamb, H. Lambert, A. Lander, P. Loughnan, J. Lumley, N. Marlow, A. Macleod, C. Macpherson, J. Madar, N. McIntosh, P. McKiernan, A. McNinch, P. Midgley, D. Milligan, D. Mitchell, N. Modi, E. Molyneux, J. Morrice, A. Morris, N. Murray, M.-L. Newell, S. Oddie, A. Ogilvie Stuart, A. Ohlsson, S. Pedler, P. Powell, S. Rahman, M. Reid, J. Rennie, I. Roberts, M. Robinson, S. Robson, H. Russell, M. Rutter, S. Ryan, D. Salisbury, B. Schmidt, N. Shaw, D. Sims, S. Sinha, J. Skinner, J. Smith, N. Subhedar, A. Taylor, D. Taylor, W. Tin, G. Toms, P. Tookey, G. Tydeman, I. Verber, P. Vermeer-de Bondt, S. Walkinshaw, S. Wardle, M. Ward Platt, U. Wariyar, R. Welch, B. Wharton, A. Whitelaw, A. Wilkinson, C. Wren and J. Wyllie.

The future of the compendium rests in the hands of those who use it; anyone spotting an error or ambiguity in the text, or identifying an important omission or a drug in development but worthy of inclusion in future editions, is urged to contact the editorial team using the email address on page xii, so that the reference value of the various drug monographs can be sustained and further improved.

Any reader would like to see any medications not currently mentioned appear in the next edition please contact the editorial team via the e-mail address [email protected].

Part 1Drug prescribing and drug administration

This part of NNF7 covers important aspects of safely prescribing and administering drugs. It also explains what happens when renal failure is present or the infant is undergoing therapeutic hypothermia.

Staff should never prescribe or administer any drug without first familiarising themselves with the way it works, the way it is handled by the body and the problems that can arise as a result of its use. Most of the essential facts relating to use in adults are summarised by the manufacturer in the ‘package insert' or Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC). Many are also summarised in a range of reference texts such as the British National Formulary (BNF) and the BNF for Children (BNFC). However manufacturers seldom provide much information about drug handling in infancy. Although BNFC now offers more advice on dosage in childhood than can be obtained from the manufacturer's package insert, it stresses that the use of any unlicensed medicine (or licensed medicine in an unlicensed manner) should only be undertaken by those who have also first consulted other appropriate and up-to-date literature. This edition of Neonatal Formulary aims to summarise and to provide a referenced guide to that literature.

While many texts offer advice on the best dose to use in infancy – often in tabular form – very few provide much information on the idiosyncrasies associated with neonatal use. Such dosage tables can be a useful aide mémoire, but they should never be relied upon, on their own, to help the staff decide what to use when, what works best or what potential adverse effects are commonly encountered during use in infancy. Lists summarising common side effects and potential drug interactions are seldom of much help in identifying which problems are common or likely to be of clinical importance in the neonate, and access to this more detailed information is as important for the staff responsible for drug administration as it is for those prescribing treatment in the first place.

Similar challenges relate to the safe use of drugs during pregnancy and lactation because standard texts (such as the BNF) offer very little information as to what is, and is not, known about use in these circumstances. Such information is available in a range of specialised reference texts (see p. 558) and Part 3 of this compendium summarises what is currently known about the use of most of the more commonly used drugs.

Never use any other reference text except the most recent edition of this or any other formulary. Copies of earlier editions of this or any other formulary should not be left where they might be used in error.

Terms, symbols, abbreviations and units

Post-menstrual age: The term post-menstrual age, as used in this book, refers to the child's total age in weeks from the start of the mother's last menstrual period (LMP). Thus a 7-week old baby born at 25 weeks' gestation is treated as having a post-menstrual age of 32 weeks.

The term ‘post-conceptional age' is sometimes incorrectly used to describe this combination, although technically, conception occurs about 2 weeks after the start of the LMP. The term ‘post-conceptional age' is best avoided. Where the date of conception is determined during assisted reproductive techniques, the convention for calculating gestation at birth is to add 2 weeks to the ‘conceptual age'.

Giving intravenous drugs: Intravenous (IV) drugs should always be given slowly, with a few notable exceptions. This universal good practice is not reiterated in each drug monograph. A simple way of achieving slow administration is described in p. 8. Where previous dilution or a particularly slow rate of infusion is important, this is specified in the relevant drug monograph, and the reason given. Drugs should also be given separately. Where two different IV drugs have to be given at the same time, the best way to stop them mixing is described in p. 22. Intramuscular (IM) drugs should never be mixed, except as described in the individual drug monographs.

Continuous co-infusion: Special problems arise when it is necessary to give more than one drug continuously and vascular access is limited. Here terminal co-infusion (the mixing of two different infusates using a tap or Y connector sited as close to the patient as possible) is sometimes known to be safe. In the most frequently encountered situations where such co-infusion is safe, a comment to that effect occurs in the relevant drug monograph. In all other situations two different infusion sites should be used unless advice to the contrary has been obtained from the local hospital pharmacy. Advice relating to Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) only applies to formulations similar to the one described in this compendium.

Drug names: Drugs are, in general, referred to by their non-proprietary (‘generic') name, following the usage currently adopted by the BNF. Where, for clarity, a proprietary name has been used, the symbol ® has been appended the first time it is used. Where the British Approved Name (BAN) or the United States Adopted Name (USAN) differ from the recommended International Non-proprietary Name (rINN), these alternatives are also given. All synonyms are indexed.

Symbols and abbreviations: Cross references between monographs are marked by the Latin phrase quod vide (contracted to q.v.). Drugs vary in the extent to which they are distributed within the body. Some only accumulate in the extracellular tissues. Others are taken up and concentrated in some or all body tissues, the total amount in the body being more than would be presumed from a measure of that present in the blood. This is referred to as the drug's apparent volume of distribution – summarised by the symbol VD. References to a randomised controlled trial are marked by the symbol [RCT]; those referring to a systematic review or meta-analysis are marked [SR]. Drugs for which the Cochrane Collaboration has produced a systematic review are marked with , and vaccines for which one can access official UK guidance via this book's website are marked with . Other abbreviations have been kept to a minimum and are explained in the index.

UNITS

1 kilogram (kg)

1000 grams

1 gram (g)

1000 milligrams

1 milligram (mg)

1000 micrograms

1 microgram (µg)

1000 nanograms

1 nanogram (ng)

1000 picograms

A 1% weight for volume (w/v) solution contains 1 g of substance in 100 ml of solution

It follows that:a 1:100 (1%) solution contains 10 mg in 1 mla 1:1000 (1‰)

solution contains 1 mg in 1 mla 1:10,000 solution contains 100 micrograms in 1 ml

a The contractions (μg, ng and ‰) should be avoided as they can be misread when handwritten.

Drug storage and administration

Safe drug administration is every bit as important as safe and effective drug prescribing.

Neonatal prescribing: It is important to consider the practicalities of drug administration when prescribing, and to avoid prescribing absurdly precise doses that cannot realistically be measured. Such problems arise with particular frequency when body weight enters into the calculation. It is difficult to measure volumes of less than 0.05 ml even with a 1 ml syringe, and anyone who prescribes a potentially dangerous drug without first working out how to give it must inevitably carry much of the responsibility if such thoughtlessness results in an administrative error. Guidance on this is given in the individual drug monographs, with advice on prior dilution where necessary.

Equal thought should also be given to the timing and frequency of drug administration. Because many drugs have a relatively long neonatal elimination ‘half-life', they only need to be given once or twice a day. More frequent administration only increases the amount of work for all concerned and increases the risk of errors creeping in. Parents are also more likely to give what has been prescribed after discharge if they are not asked to give the medicine more than twice a day!

Length of treatment: Remembering to stop treatment can be as important as remembering to start it. Neonatal antibiotic treatment seldom needs to be continued for very long. Treatment should always be stopped after 36–48 hours or sooner if the initial diagnosis is not confirmed. Babies with meningitis, osteitis and staphylococcal pneumonia almost always need 2–3 weeks' treatment, but 10 days is usually enough in septicaemia. Few babies need to go home on treatment; even anticonvulsants can usually be stopped prior to discharge (cf. the monograph on phenobarbital). Babies are often offered respiratory stimulants like caffeine for far longer than is necessary. Few continue to need such treatment when they are more than 32 weeks gestation: it should, therefore, usually be possible to stop all treatment at least 3 weeks before discharge. In the case of some widely used nutritional supplements (such as iron and folic acid), there was probably never any indication for starting treatment in the first place given the extent to which most artificial milks are now fortified (cf. the monograph on pre-term milk).

Storage before use: Most drugs are perfectly stable at room temperature (i.e. at between 5 and 25 °C) and do not require specialised storage facilities. Temperatures above 25 °C can be harmful, however, and some drugs are damaged by being frozen, so special thought has to be given to transport and dispatch. Some drugs are best protected from direct daylight, and, as a general rule, all drugs should be stored in a cupboard and kept in the boxes in which they were dispensed and dispatched. Indeed, in a hospital setting, all drugs are normally kept under lock and key.

Hospital guidelines usually specify that drugs for external use should be kept in a separate cupboard from drugs for internal use. Controlled drugs, as specified in the regulations issued under the UK Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, must be kept in a separate cupboard. This must have a separate key, and this key must remain under the control of the nurse in charge of the ward at all times. A witnessed record must be kept of everything placed in, or taken from, this cupboard and any loss (e.g. due to breakage) should be accounted for. Medical and nursing staff must comply with identical rules in this regard.

Special considerations apply to the storage of vaccines. Many of these are damaged if they are not kept at between 4 and 8 °C at all times – even during transit and delivery (no mean feat in many resource poor or underdeveloped countries). A range of other biological products, such as the natural hormones desmopressin, oxytocin, tetracosactide and vasopressin, need to be stored at 4 °C. The same goes for cytokines, such as erythropoeitin (epoeitin) and filgrastim, and surfactants of animal origin. The only other widely used neonatal drugs that need to be stored at 4 °C are amphotericin, atracurium, dinoprostone, soluble insulin, lorazepam and pancuronium, and even here the need to maintain such a temperature all the time is not nearly as strict as it is with vaccine storage. Many oral antibiotic preparations have only a limited shelf life after reconstitution. The same goes for a number of oral suspensions prepared for neonatal use ‘in house'. The ‘shelf life' of all these preparations can be increased by storage at 4 °C. Drugs that do not need to be kept in a ward refrigerator should not be so stored.

All the drugs mentioned in this compendium that require special storage conditions have their requirements clearly indicated in the relevant drug monograph – where no storage conditions are specified it can be taken that no special conditions exist.

Continued retention of open vials: Glass and plastic ampoules must be discarded once they have been opened. Drug vials can generally be kept for a few hours after they have been reconstituted, as long as they are stored at 4 °C but, because they often contain no antiseptic or preservative, it becomes increasingly more hazardous to insert a fresh needle through the cap more than two or three times, or to keep any open vial for more than 6–8 hours. It is, therefore, standard practice to discard all vials promptly after they have been opened (with the few exceptions specifically mentioned in the individual monographs in Part 2).

Drug dilution: Many drugs have to be diluted before they can be used in babies because they were formulated for use in adults. In addition, dilution is almost always required when a drug is given as a continuous infusion. Serious errors can occur at this stage if the dead space in the hub of the syringe is overlooked. Thus if a drug is drawn into a 1 ml syringe up to the 0.05 ml mark, the syringe will then contain between 0.14 and 0.18 ml of drug. If the syringe is then filled to 1 ml with diluent, the syringe will contain three times as much drug as was intended!

To dilute any drug safely, therefore, draw some diluent into the syringe first, preferably until the syringe is about half full, and then add the active drug. Mix the drug and diluent if necessary at this stage by one or two gentle movements of the plunger, and then finally make the syringe up to the planned total volume with further diluent. In this way the distance between two of the graduation marks on the side of the syringe can be used to measure the amount of active drug added.

While this may be adequate for 10-fold dilution, it is not accurate enough where a greater dilution than this is required. In this situation it is necessary to use two syringes linked by a sterile three-way tap. The active drug is drawn up into a suitable small syringe and then injected into the larger syringe through the side port of the tap. The tap is then turned so as to occlude the side port and diluent added to the main syringe until the desired total volume is reached.

Detailed guidance is given in Part 2 of this compendium on how to reconstitute each drug prior to administration, and how to handle drug dilution whenever this is called for. This can be found under the heading ‘Supply' or ‘Supply and administration' in each drug monograph.

Giving drugs by mouth: Oral medication is clearly unsuitable for babies who are shocked, acidotic or otherwise obviously unwell because there is a real risk of paralytic ileus and delayed absorption. Babies well enough to take milk feeds, however, are nearly always well enough to take medication by mouth, and many drugs are just as effective when given this way. Antibiotics that can be given by mouth to any baby well enough to take milk feeds without detriment to the blood levels that are achieved include amoxycillin, ampicillin, cephalexin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, co-trimoxazole, erythromycin, flucloxacillin, fluconazole, flucytosine, isoniazid, metronidazole, pyrimethamine, rifampicin, sodium fusidate and trimethoprim. Oral administration is often quicker, cheaper and safer than intravenous (IV) administration. Oral administration is also much more easily managed on the postnatal wards, and treatment can then be continued by the parents after discharge where appropriate.

Remember that if medicine is passed down an orogastric or nasogastric feeding tube, much of it will be left in the tube unless it is then flushed through. It used to be standard practice to formulate drugs given by mouth so that the neonatal dose was always given in 5 ml aliquots (one teaspoonful), but this practice has now been discontinued. Dilution often reduced stability and shortened the drug's ‘shelf life', while dilution with a syrup containing glucose threatened to increase the risk of caries in recently erupted teeth in later infancy. Small quantities are best given from a dropper bottle (try to avoid the pipette touching the tongue) or dropped onto the back of the tongue from the nozzle of a syringe.

Additives to milk: Vitamins are often added to milk. Sodium, phosphate and bicarbonate can also be given as a dietary supplement in the same way. It is important to remember that if only half the proffered feed is taken, only half the medicine is administered. Where possible all of a day's supplements should be added to the first feed of the day, so the baby still gets all that were prescribed even if feeding is later curtailed. The giving of any such dietary supplement must be recorded either on the feed chart or on the drug prescription sheet, and, to avoid confusion, each unit needs to develop a consistent policy in this regard.

Intravenous drugs: IV drugs should be given slowly and, where possible, through a secure established IV line containing glucose and/or sodium chloride. Drugs should never be injected or connected into a line containing blood or a blood product. Since the volume of the drug to be given seldom exceeds 2 ml in neonatal practice, abrupt administration can be avoided by siting a three-way tap so there is only 10–25 cm of narrow-bore tubing containing about 2 ml of fluid between the tap and the patient. Give the drug over about 5 seconds as described under the heading IV injections, but do not, except in special circumstances, flush the drug through. The adoption of this practice as a routine ensures that any ‘bolus' of drug reaches the patient slowly over a period of 5–20 minutes after being injected into the fluid line without staff having to stand by the patient throughout the period of administration, or set up a special mechanical infusion system.

On the rare occasions when a small rapid bolus injection is