Abstract
Although there is literature suggesting that pathophysiologic changes in children with congenital heart disease alter the pharmacokinetics of anesthetics and may result in dosage adjustment, limited information exists regarding the pharmacokinetics of remifentanil in infants with unrepaired tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). The objectives of the current analysis were to characterize the population pharmacokinetics of remifentanil in infants, and to evaluate the effects of TOF on remifentanil's pharmacokinetics. Twenty-seven infants (16 with TOF and 11 with normal cardiac anatomy; aged 114-360days) scheduled to undergo elective surgery under general anesthesia were recruited in the study. All children received remifentanil 1μg/kg/min intravenously for anesthesia induction and early maintenance [until ~ 20min before cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) for patients with TOF]. Serial arterial blood samples were drawn and analyzed. Population pharmacokinetics of remifentanil was characterized using NONMEM software. The estimates were standardized to a 70-kg adult using a per-kilogram model. A two-compartment disposition model adequately described the pharmacokinetics of remifentanil. Besides body weight, the introduction of any other covariates, including TOF status, did not improve the model significantly (P > 0.05). The population parameter estimates for systemic clearance (Cl1) and inter-compartment clearances (Cl2) were 6.03 × (WT/70kg) and 1.23 × (WT/70kg) L/min, respectively, and central volume of distribution (V1) and peripheral volumes of distribution (V2) were 19.6 × (WT/70kg) and 21.7 × (WT/70kg) L, respectively. Unrepaired TOF does not change the pharmacokinetics of remifentanil, suggesting a similar dosage for infants with TOF compared to normal cardiac anatomy infants. The patient enrollment in this study started at 2012, so we do not have clinic trial number, but we still think this is a valuable research and hope it could be considered for publication.
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