Medication use during neonatal and pediatric critical care transport.

Abstract

The Pediatric Critical Care Unit (PCCU) at the Children's Hospital of Western Ontario provides a transport service and team (critical care physician, critical care nurse, respiratory therapist) which transports critically ill newborns, infants, and children. The purpose of this study was to identify the medications used during transport and to determine age-related differences. Results of a prospective study of all drugs administered by the transport team to 174 patients during their stabilization and transport from November 1, 1987 through October 31, 1988 are presented. One hundred and twenty-one (69.5%) patients received at least one medication. The most frequently administered medications were antibiotics (38.5% of patients), followed by morphine (27.0%), anticonvulsants (23.6%), neuromuscular blockers (14.4%), respiratory drugs (11.5%), inotropes (10.9%), and sedatives (7.5%). Miscellaneous medications were administered to 48.8% of patients. The use of different classes of drugs varied with age; anticonvulsants were most frequently administered to children, sedatives and respiratory medications to infants, and antibiotics and miscellaneous medications to newborns. The wide range of medications used may reflect the diversity of diseases causing critical illness which reinforces that transport teams must have access to and knowledge of a variety of medications. The formulary of medications taken by the critical care transport team is included.