title: [Criteria for selecting antibacterial drugs for use in newborn infants].
abstract: During the last years many advancements have been made in the field of clinical pharmacology. Nowadays we have a better understanding of the factors influencing absorption, distribution and elimination of antibacterial drugs in the newborn. However many problems have not been faced yet; of primary importance are earliness and aiming of therapy. Much has been written about the use of hematologic screening tests for an early diagnosis of sepsis and the use of tests for a rapid etiologic diagnosis. This is probably the result not only of the commonly encountered difficulty in making a clinical diagnosis of sepsis (based on clinical findings that are often insidious and aspecific) but also of the implications concerning either a "non-diagnosis" or a large use of antibacterial drugs. The choice of an appropriate antibacterial therapy in the newborn with sepsis implies a careful interpretation of the data concerning: 1) bacterial epidemiology and 2) sensitivity towards drugs of the bacterial most commonly identified in sepsis. For that purpose, it is important to distinguish between early and late sepsis and between the etiological agents more frequently responsible for the first and those for the later. Moreover it is important to consider the role of rapid tests in the etiological diagnosis, as a guide to the modification of the initial empirical therapy.
authors.affiliation: Clinica Pediatrica IV, Università di Milano, Italia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Viganò
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dalla Villa
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tommasi
mesh_terms: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents
vernacular_title: Criteri di scelta dei farmaci antibatterici in età neonatale.