PRACTICAL THERAPEUTIC IMPLICATIONS OF IMMATURITY

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Abstract
RECENTLY, there has been considerable agitation concerning harmful effects of a few particular drugs administered to premature infants and also to infants during the neonatal period. It may be presumptuous to state that the administration of drugs at any period during life involves risk, but hazard increases with lack of knowledge of biochemistry and physiology of the organism. Inadequacies in pharmacologic knowledge are in particular evidence in pediatric medicine. It is becoming more and more apparent that the neonatal infant demonstrates characteristic organ and tissue functions much different from those encountered in the mature individual. This new information has not been sufficiently utilized by some clinical investigators or by manufacturers of pharmaceutical agents. When a drug is administered it is metabolized in a definite fashion, and an overdose may yield unpleasant and sometimes deadly effects.

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