Safety Comparative Study on Azithromycin Oral and IV Dosage Form in Pediatric Respiratory Infection Therapy

Abstract

Azithromycin is widely used for treatment in various of pediatric respiratory infections and there is no any strict requirement for selection of oral or intravenous (IV) dosage form. There is few comparative data in respective of safety between these two dosage forms. The purpose of this study was to review safety data between oral and IV for the treatment under 16-year-old children and intend to give pediatricians reference in the two dosage forms of azithromycin. This paper has reviewed adverse events ( AEs) data which include 3960 cases of children in 79 published paper for treatment in respiratory infection. There are 1628 cases in oral group,2302 cases in IV group and 30 AE individuals case reports (IV). The study result shows that the AE incidence is 14.12% in IV group and 9.28% in the oral group. It is significant different between the two groups (u=4.699, P<0.0005). In conclusion, Azithromycin oral dosage form resulted in better tolerance in children than that of IV, suggest pediatricians to prescribe oral dosage form as first line therapy. MATERIAL AND METHODS All data came from the Wanfang Data-base and Weipu Database. The publishing date of literature used is from Jan.1 1997 to Dec. 1 2007. Meanwhile, we traced every reference literature. The index keyword included children, azithromycin, intravenous and oral administration. INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION CRITERIA