How to switch oral antiparkinsonian drugs to intravenous drugs in Parkinson d...Daisuke Yamamoto
1) A patient with Parkinson's disease was hospitalized for aspiration pneumonia and could no longer take oral medications. It is important to switch such patients from oral to intravenous antiparkinsonian drugs to prevent complications.
2) When switching from L-DOPA to intravenous levodopa, the guidelines recommend administering 50-100 mg of levodopa for every 100 mg of oral L-DOPA, or a total levodopa equivalent dose.
3) For this patient taking 300 mg of L-DOPA daily, the recommendation would be to administer 150-300 mg of intravenous levodopa per day to match the oral dose. Continuous intravenous infusion is an alternative to divided administration.