Læknablaðið : fylgirit - 01.05.1978, Page 46

J. Haapasaari, A-L. Makelá, M. Lempiáinen
and T. Yrjana.
Departments of Paediatrics and Clinical
Chemistry, Turku University Hospital,
Turku, Finland.
The liquid form of benorylate makes it easy
to dosage this drug accurately for children in
milligrams per kg of body weight. A harmful
handicap is, however, the taste of benorylate
mixture, which by some children is considered
to be bad and disgusting. This is, however,
not a rule, in general children take the mixture
quite readily.
Conceming the dosage of benorylate to children,
in an earlier report from 1974, doctors Powell
and Ansell1) recommend benorylate to be
started with a dosage of 200 mg/kg/day in
cases of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. According
to Powell and Anseil, the blood salicylate level
should be checked at seven days during the treat-
ment, and the dosage of benorylate should be
adjusted to give blood salicylate levels between
25 and 30 mg/100 ml corresponding values 1800-
2300 umol/1.
Once a satisfactory blood salicylate level of
between 25 and 30 mg/100 ml has been achieved,
this dosage should be maintained with an occa-
sional monitoring of the salicylate level.
This recommended daily dosage of 200 mg/kg
of body weight was used also in our study, the
BENORYLATE
IN THE TREATMENT
OF JUVENILE RHEUMATOID
ARTHRITIS
total daily dose did not, however, exceed 8grams.
The purpose of our study was concentrated on
clarifying the serumlevels of salicylate and
paracetamol achieved with a constant dosage of
200 mg/kg/day of benorylate to children with JRA.
In addition, the clinical effect of this constant
dosage of benorylate was registered in these
children, as well as the possible side-effects.
The duration of the test was two weeks. During
this period, the serum levels of both salicylates
and paracetamol were controlled frequently to
investigate their connection to the possible side
effects.
Twenty-two inpatients, 10 boys and 12 girls,
suffering from active juvenile rheumatoid arthri-
tis were included this trial. The age of the
children ranged between 18 months and 13years.
Benorylate was administered twice daily, the
total daily dose being 200 mg/kg of body weight.
In two cases, in which the weight of the children
was more than 40 kg, the total daily dose of
benorylate was 8 grams.
Salicylate serum levels were estimated
spectrophotometrically by Trinder's method.
Figure 1. With a constant dosage of benorylate
SALICYLATE
IN SERUM
fjmol/l mg/IOOml
2000
IS00
'600
U.00
'200
'000
aoo
600
400
200
SALICYLATE SERUM CONCENTRATION (MEAN :
DOSAGE OF BENORYLATE 200 mg/kg/day
S 0)
Fig. 1.
Salicylate serum levels
in children treated with
benorylate with a constan
daily dose 200 mg/kg
during fourteen days.
I 2 3 4 5 1 6 7 8 9 10 il 12 13 14
DAYS OF AÐMINISTRATION
NUMBER OF
20,SAMPLES
1 ’ 6 ■ 7 ' 8 9 ’ 10 ii ' 12 ' 13 14
DAYS OF ADMINISTRATION
44