Table 3

A summary of evidence based body size metrics (based on adult data) on which to base loading and maintenance doses of a range of drugs commonly used in paediatrics

	Suggested body size metric to calculate dose (mg/kg) (mg/m²)
Drug	Loading or first dose	Maintenance dose	Comments	Reference
Aciclovir	IBW	IBW		Anderson et al44
β-Lactams	ABW	ABW	Estimate not based on clinical studies	Falagas et al45
β-Lactams	Factor=0.3	Factor=0.3	Estimate not based on clinical studies	Falagas et al45
Caffeine	ABW	ABW		Caraco et al46
Carbamazepine	TBW	IBW		Caraco et al47
Ciprofloxacin	TBW	TBW		Hollenstein et al48
		ABW		Allard et al49
		Factor=0.45
Enoxaparin	BSA	BSA	Monitor carefully	Sanderink et al50
Enoxaparin	TBW	LBW
Etoposide	BSA	TBW		Nguyen et al51
Gentamicin	ABW	ABW	Undertake TDM as early as possible to optimise dose	Leader et al18
Gentamicin	Factor=0.4	Factor=0.4	Undertake TDM as early as possible to optimise dose	Traynor et al52
Phenytoin	IBW	IBW	Adjust maintenance dose based on monitoring	Abernethy et al53
Propofol		TBW	Clinical study backed up by PB-PK model51	Levitt et al38
Propofol		LBW	Clinical study backed up by PB-PK model51	McLeay et al54
Ranitidine	IBW	LBW		Davis et al55
Vancomycin	TBW	TBW	Assuming renal	Vance-Bryan et al56 Blouin et al57
	TBW + %IBW	TBW	function normal.
	ABW	BSA	Undertake TDM

ABW, adjusted body weight; BSA, body surface area; IBW, ideal body weight; LBW, lean body weight; TBW, total body weight; TDM, therapeutic drug monitoring.