Antibiotic defined daily dose in pediatrics. A single center study to proof the principle that a specific pediatric definition could be not needed.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate if a specific pediatric defined daily dose (PeDDD) can be replaced with the defined daily dose (DDD) indicated by World Health Organization (WHO). METHODS: The 50th percentile of body weight for age of children admitted from 2016 to 2020 at Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy, was used to calculate PeDDD for vancomycin at 40mg/kg and meropenem at 60mg/kg. Data obtained were then used to calculate the PeDDD number based on the amount of drugs delivered quarterly from 2012 to 2016. Subsequently the DDD number was calculated for vancomycin at 2g and meropenem at 3g. With these results two curves were generated which were then compared for parallelism and area under the curve (AUC). RESULTS: PeDDD was found to be 2.6 times DDD for both drugs, but both curves obtained were parallel and the AUCs were identical CONCLUSIONS: DDD according to WHO definition could be adopted in pediatrics to measure antibiotic consumption and therefore no specific PeDDD could be needed.