About ProCare
ProCare Home Health and Private Duty Services is a certified Healthcare provider with 35 years of experience. We offer the most reliable Healthcare Services in 6 county areas. As a participating member of the Tennessee Home Care Association, we are committed to providing the same High-Quality Healthcare Services in the years to come.
Our Mission: With a focus on comfort, compassion, and care, our Mission is to provide the most reliable Home Health & Private Duty Services to our patients. Through our skilled and experienced Healthcare professionals, we are determined to improve the quality of Healthcare Services and make a significant difference in the community.
ProCare Home Health & Private Duty Services is dedicated to providing our patients with a diverse range of Healthcare Services to ensure the best quality services. We believe in the convenience of our patients and their well-being is our top most priority.
Differences between adult and pediatric medicine
The body size differences are paralleled by maturation changes. The smaller body of an infant or neonate is substantially different physiologically from that of an adult. Congenital defects, genetic variance, and developmental issues are of greater concern to pediatricians than they often are to adult physicians. A common adage is that children are not simply “little adults”. The clinician must take into account the immature physiology of the infant or child when considering symptoms, prescribing medications, and diagnosing illnesses.
Pediatric physiology directly impacts the pharmacokinetic properties of drugs that enter the body. The absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination of medications differ between developing children and grown adults. Despite completed studies and reviews, continual research is needed to better understand how these factors should affect the decisions of healthcare providers when prescribing and administering medications to the pediatric population.
Absorption
Many drug absorption differences between pediatric and adult populations revolve around the stomach. Neonates and young infants have increased stomach pH due to decreased acid secretion, thereby creating a more basic environment for drugs that are taken by mouth. Acid is essential to degrading certain oral drugs before systemic absorption. Therefore, the absorption of these drugs in children is greater than in adults due to decreased breakdown and increased preservation in a less acidic gastric space.
Children also have an extended rate of gastric emptying, which slows the rate of drug absorption.
Drug absorption also depends on specific enzymes that come in contact with the oral drug as it travels through the body. Supply of these enzymes increase as children continue to develop their gastrointestinal tract. Pediatric patients have underdeveloped proteins, which leads to decreased metabolism and increased serum concentrations of specific drugs. However, prodrugs experience the opposite effect because enzymes are necessary in allowing their active form to enter systemic circulation.