Pharmacogenetic Gene-Drug Associations in Pediatric Burn and Surgery Patients

Management of critically ill patients requires simultaneous administration of many medications. Treatment for patient comorbidities may lead to drug–drug interactions which decrease drug efficacy or increase adverse reactions. Current practices rely on a one-size-fits-all dosing approach. Pharmacogenetic testing is generally reserved for addressing problems rather than used proactively to optimize care. We hypothesized that burn and surgery patients will have one or more genetic variants in drug metabolizing pathways used by one or more medications administered during the patient’s hospitalization. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of variants with abnormal function in the primary drug pathways and identify which medications may be impacted. Genetic (19 whole exome and 11 whole genome) and medication data from 30 pediatric burn and surgery patients were analyzed to identify pharmacogene–drug associations. Nineteen patients were identified with predicted altered function in one or more of the following genes: CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4. The majority had decreased function, except for several patients with CYP2C19 rapid or ultrarapid variants. Some drugs administered during hospitalization that rely on these pathways include hydrocodone, oxycodone, methadone, ibuprofen, ketorolac, celecoxib, diazepam, famotidine, diphenhydramine, and glycopyrrolate. Approximately one-third of the patients tested had functionally impactful genotypes in each of the primary drug metabolizing pathways. This study suggests that genetic variants may in part explain the vast variability in drug efficacy and suggests that future pharmacogenetics research may optimize dosing regimens.