title: Indications for outpatient treatment with parenteral antibiotics in children.
abstract: Serious infections in children can be treated using outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) which is cheaper and less disruptive than hospitalization. Responsible and well-informed parents are the key to success of OPAT in children, and medical centres should provide suitable follow-up procedures. Ceftriaxone is the key drug for various OPAT programmes due to its high therapeutic index, lack of toxicity, once-daily administration and good intramuscular bioavailablity. However, in some infections other drugs are needed. Such parenteral drugs can be used to stabilize the patient before switching to oral drugs.
authors.affiliation: Paediatric Infectious Disease Unit, The Soroka University Medical Centre and the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 151, Beer-Sheva 84101, Israel.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dagan