Four-hour versus 24-hour intravenous infusion of FK 506 in liver transplantation.

I N AN earlier study, intravenous (IV) FK 506 appeared to be less well tolerated than the oral drug for two reasons. 1 One was the selection of a starting IV dose that was too high. The other may have been the use of pulse infusion therapy (over 2 to 4 hours) with consequent high peak plasma concentrations. In patients with unsatisfactory liver graft function, these peak values were sustained for long periods. In the present study, we compared the perioperative use of constant IV infusion of FK 506 to 4-hour pulse infusion in a total of 238 consecutive primary liver recipients. The therapeutic efficacy and adverse effects of the drug were compared.