Abstract
Modern paediatric intensive care became organized in Europe in 1970s. Since that, time medical and technological advances resulted in a significant improvement of the treatment for infants, children and adolescents admitted to the Paediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs) with a wide range of medical and surgical conditions. Now numerous conditions that were previously considered fatal have become treatable with an overall survival rate of 85–98%. However, the profile change of patients and the appearance of new conditions (CLD, VAP, VILI) have caused new problems, together with the consideration that 90% of medicinal products used in PICUs are still unauthorised or administered off-label.
PICU constitutes a unique setting for pharmacotherapy, as the patient is often characterised by respiratory or multiorgan failure, with an underlying pathology, and for which drug interaction, mode of administration and organ maturation are not properly taken into account.
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