Azythromycin IV in peds pt?

Specialties Pediatric

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Our infectious disease specialist wants to use Azythromycin IV in some of our peds pts.. he has used it with success in adults and has had fewer side effects than with erythromycin IV.

We needed to use it in a pt with suspected mycoplasma, couldn't take anything po due to mouth sores... Gehart, our IV med bible in our facility, stated usage in peds not recommended.

We are trying to find out if anyone has used it in peds so we can make an addendum to our IV med manual. The erythromycin is brutal, the poor pt vomited with each q6h dose no matter how slow given, how much diluted or when zofran given prior... we had to stop the med.

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Specializes in ER.

I have given it regularly even to infants. Usually the diagnosis would be chicken pox that had disseminated, or exposure to chicken pox in an immunocompromised patient. I am not aware of any adverse reactions beyond any normal IV antibiotic. Perhaps the warning refers to not having done controlled studies in pediatrics, but I would be surprised if someone somewhere has not established saftey by now, as I have been out of peds for 4 years.

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Originally posted by canoehead

I have given it regularly even to infants. Usually the diagnosis would be chicken pox that had disseminated, or exposure to chicken pox in an immunocompromised patient. I am not aware of any adverse reactions beyond any normal IV antibiotic. Perhaps the warning refers to not having done controlled studies in pediatrics, but I would be surprised if someone somewhere has not established saftey by now, as I have been out of peds for 4 years.

:) Thank you for the reply, but are you referring to Acyclovir? We do give that IV even to infants, and it is for herpes.

And yes, the reason we were told Azithromycin isn't given to ped patients is it hasn't been studied in that population....

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Specializes in ER.

I'm sorry, I wasn't paying very good attention, was I?

No I've never given azithromycin to a peds patient, but I believe it came on the market after I left pediatrics. If you wrote to the company they may be able to tell you of the most recent studies.

Good luck.

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At the hospital I work at we have used IV Azithromycin on pediatric patients. Haven't had a problem that I know of yet.

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