EVALUATING GABAPENTIN DOSING, EFFICACY AND SAFETY IN INFANTS
Main Article Content
Keywords
gabapentin, infants, irritability, neonates, pain, visceral hyperalgesia
Abstract
Gabapentin for management of neuropathic pain, irritability, neonatal abstinence syndrome, rescue sedation, feeding intolerance and visceral hyperalgesia in infants has grown over the past decade. There remains little guidance for indications, initiation, titration and maintenance dosing trends and assessment of outcomes. The primary objective was to describe gabapentin dosing, and the secondary objectives were to identify outcomes to assess efficacy and describe weaning practices.
METHODS
A retrospective single-center study was performed in infants younger than 1 year who received gabapentin. The primary outcome was indication, initiation and maximum gabapentin dose. Secondary outcomes included mortality, adverse reactions and impact on feeding volumes, weight-for-age Z-scores and face, legs, activity, cry, consolability (FLACC) scores. Descriptive statistics were utilized.
RESULTS
Sixty-six infants received gabapentin at a mean ± SD age of 5.5 ± 2.7 months (range of 0–11 months). The mean ± SD initiation dose of gabapentin was 8.6 ± 5.4 mg/kg/day with a median interval of 24 hours (8–24 hours). The maximum mean dose was 23.2 ± 14.4 mg/kg/day at a median interval of every 8 hours (8 hours). The most common indications for initiation were irritability, rescue sedation, and visceral hyperalgesia. There was a statistical improvement in weight-for-age Z scores from 24 hours prior to gabapentin initiation to 2 weeks after the maximum dose of gabapentin (−2.23 ± 1.78 to −1.66 ± 1.91, p < 0.001) and a reduction in FLACC scores (2.29 ± 1.64 to 1.52 ± 1.76, p = 0.007) from 24 hours prior to gabapentin initiation to 3 days after the maximum dose of gabapentin. Three patients experienced minor adverse events.
CONCLUSIONS
Gabapentin was well tolerated in infants. Initial gabapentin dosing of 5 mg/kg/dose every 24 hours appears safe and consistent with other published studies in infants. The improvement in outcomes with few adverse events suggests a beneficial role for gabapentin
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
All articles published in JPTCP are licensed under Copyright Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Dr niraj Kumar
Assistant professor, Department of paediatrics, VIMS , gajraula
Dr Mohit Aggarwal
Assistant professor, Department of paediatrics, VIMS , gajraula