Ductal Closure with Paracetamol: a Surprising new Approach to …

Hammerman C, Bin-Nun A, Markovitch E, Schimmel MS, Kaplan M, et al. Ductal closure with paracetamol: a surprising new approach to patent ductus arteriosus treatment. Pediatrics. 2011;128(6). doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-0359.

Standard pharmacologic closure of the patent ductus arteriosus currently involves the administration of 1 of 2 cyclooxygenase inhibitors: either indomethacin or ibuprofen. However, both of these drugs can be associated with potentially significant adverse effects. We present here the cases of 5 preterm infants (gestational age: 26-32 weeks; postnatal age: 3-35 days) with large, hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus who had either failed or had contraindications to ibuprofen therapy. Each of these infants was treated with off-label oral paracetamol (15 mg/kg per dose every 6 hours). Ductal closure was achieved within 48 hours in all the treated infants. No toxicity was observed.

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