Critical Care Pharmacotherapy
Authors/Creators
- 1. Department of Pharmacy Practice, Parul Institute of Pharmacy, Parul University, Vadodara, Gujarat, India.
Description
Critical care, particularly treating critically ill patients, frequently undergoes immediate physiological changes that influence drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. Pharmacotherapy is crucial in ensuring the safety and effectiveness of the administration of drugs in those with these conditions. Pharmacists help by personalizing medication prescriptions, keeping an eye on the level of sedation, and striking a balance between safety and effectiveness. Registered pharmacists are essential in critical care pharmacotherapy because they can modify drug regimens according to the physiological requirements of each patient. They maintain an important equilibrium between drug safety and efficacy in critically ill patients by continuously monitoring the amount of medication, adjusting the dose to maximize therapeutic impact, and minimizing side effects. Systemic vasodilation and compromised vascular tone cause severe hypotension in septic and vasodilatory shock. Vasoactive drugs play a crucial role in the management of critically ill patients because they maintain organ perfusion, restore hemodynamic stability, and enhance survival rates. For these reasons, they are essential to critical care pharmacotherapy. Individualized pharmacotherapy is essential in the management of viral illness. To maximize patient safety and ICU outcome, personalized pharmacotherapy and clinical pharmacy service are necessary in critical care to prevent medication errors, optimize drug therapy, and ensure safe, effective treatment. Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics are improved by the technique involving therapeutic medication monitoring and continuous and prolonged infusion, which somewhat facilitates bacterial eradication while inhibiting resistance. In order to enhance outcomes for critically ill patients, critical care pharmacotherapy requires precise, evidence-based, and customized treatments. In healthcare, an extremely-risk ICU individual, pharmacotherapy ensures safety, evidence-based medicinal utilization through specific treatment, careful intake of vasoactive and antimicrobial medicine, and overall intervention that reduces avoidable mistakes. Pharmacist and their support staff members contribute an important part in enhancing outcomes for advances in the safety of treatment in critical care.
Files
Chapter-11.pdf
Files
(1.7 MB)
| Name | Size | Download all |
|---|---|---|
|
md5:84f88abb1456e6a3a7f98cf0f36c2b45
|
1.7 MB | Preview Download |
Additional details
Dates
- Submitted
-
2025-11-18
- Accepted
-
2026-03-15
References
- 1. Ho, C. K., Mabasa, V. H., Leung, V. W., Malyuk, D. L., & Perrott, J. L. (2013). Assessment of clinical pharmacy interventions in the intensive care unit. The Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, 66(4), 212–218.
- 2. Mohammad, R. A., Eze, C., Marshall, V. D., Coe, A. B., Costa, D. K., Thompson, A., Pitcher, M., Haezebrouck, E., & McSparron, J. I. (2022). The impact of a clinical pharmacist in an interprofessional intensive care unit recovery clinic providing care to intensive care unit survivors. JACCP, 5(10), 1027–1038.
- 3. Arredondo, E., Udeani, G., Horseman, M., Hintze, T. D., & Surani, S. (2021). Role of clinical pharmacists in intensive care units. Cureus, 13(9), e17929.
- 4. Pandharipande, P., Hughes, N., & McGrane, N. (2012). Sedation in the intensive care setting. Clinical Pharmacology Advances and Applications, 4, 53.
- 5. Jentzer, J. C., Coons, J. C., Link, C. B., & Schmidhofer, M. (2014). Pharmacotherapy Update on the use of vasopressors and inotropes in the intensive care unit. Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 20(3), 249–260.
- 6. Russell, J. A., Gordon, A. C., Williams, M. D., Boyd, J. H., Walley, K. R., & Kissoon, N. (2020). Vasopressor therapy in the intensive care unit. Seminars in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 42(01), 059–077.
- 7. Guilhaumou, R., Benaboud, S., Bennis, Y., Dahyot-Fizelier, C., Dailly, E., Gandia, P., Goutelle, S., Lefeuvre, S., Mongardon, N., Roger, C., Scala-Bertola, J., Lemaitre, F., & Garnier, M. (2019). Optimization of the treatment with beta-lactam antibiotics in critically ill patients—guidelines from the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (Société Française de Pharmacologie et Thérapeutique—SFPT) and the French Society of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine (Société Française d'Anesthésie et Réanimation—SFAR). Critical Care, 23(1), 104.
- 8. Timsit, J., Bassetti, M., Cremer, O., Daikos, G., De Waele, J., Kallil, A., Kipnis, E., Kollef, M., Laupland, K., Paiva, J., Rodríguez-Baño, J., Ruppé, É., Salluh, J., Taccone, F. S., Weiss, E., & Barbier, F. (2019). Rationalizing antimicrobial therapy in the ICU: a narrative review. Intensive Care Medicine, 45(2), 172–189.
- 9. Kaboli, P. J., Hoth, A. B., McClimon, B. J., & Schnipper, J. L. (2006). Clinical pharmacists and inpatient medical care. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166(9), 955.
- 10. Kopp, B. J., Erstad, B. L., Allen, M. E., Theodorou, A. A., & Priestley, G. (2006). Medication errors and adverse drug events in an intensive care unit: Direct observation approach for detection. Critical Care Medicine, 34(2), 415–425.