Tag Archives: Anti-Bacterial Agents

Vancomycin-Related Acute Kidney Injury

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Zasowski EJ, et al. Identification of Vancomycin Exposure-Toxicity Thresholds in Hospitalized Patients Receiving Intravenous Vancomycin. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2017 Dec 21;62(1):e01684-17.

Evidence supports vancomycin therapeutic-drug monitoring by area under the concentration-time curve (AUC), but data to establish an AUC upper limit are limited and published nephrotoxicity thresholds range widely. The objective of this analysis was to examine the association between initial vancomycin AUC and nephrotoxicity. This was a multicenter, retrospective cohort study of adult patients receiving intravenous vancomycin from 2014 to 2015. Nephrotoxicity was defined as a serum creatinine increase of 0.5 mg/liter and 50% from baseline on consecutive measurements. Vancomycin exposure profile during the initial 48 h of therapy was estimated using maximum a posteriori probability Bayesian estimation. Vancomycin AUC and minimum-concentration (Cmin) thresholds most strongly associated with nephrotoxicity were identified via classification and regression tree (CART) analysis. Predictive performances of CART-derived and other candidate AUC thresholds was assessed through positive and negative predictive value and receiver operating characteristic curves. Poisson regression was used to quantify the association between exposure thresholds and nephrotoxicity while adjusting for confounders. Among 323 patients included, nephrotoxicity was significantly higher in patients with AUCs from 0 to 48 h (AUC0-48) of ≥1,218 mg · h/liter, AUC0-24 of ≥677 mg · h/liter, AUC24-48 of ≥683 mg · h/liter, and day 1 Cmin (Cmin24) of ≥18.8 mg/liter. Vancomycin exposure in excess of these thresholds was associated with a 3- to 4-fold-increased risk of nephrotoxicity in Poisson regression. The predictive performance of AUC for nephrotoxicity was maximized at daily AUC values between 600 and 800 mg · h/liter. Although these data support an AUC range for vancomycin-associated nephrotoxity rather than a single threshold, available evidence suggests that a daily AUC limit of 700 mg · h/liter is reasonable.

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Article of interest: A randomized trial comparing antibiotics with appendectomy for appendicitis

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CODA Collaborative, Flum DR, Davidson GH, et al. A Randomized Trial Comparing Antibiotics with Appendectomy for Appendicitis. N Engl J Med. 2020 Nov 12;383(20): 1907-1919.

Full-text for Emory users.

Figure 2. Cumulative Incidence of Appendectomy in the Antibiotics Group. Plus signs indicate censoring because the participant withdrew or was lost to follow-up.

Background: Antibiotic therapy has been proposed as an alternative to surgery for the treatment of appendicitis.

Methods: We conducted a pragmatic, nonblinded, noninferiority, randomized trial comparing antibiotic therapy (10-day course) with appendectomy in patients with appendicitis at 25 U.S. centers. The primary outcome was 30-day health status, as assessed with the European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) questionnaire (scores range from 0 to 1, with higher scores indicating better health status; noninferiority margin, 0.05 points). Secondary outcomes included appendectomy in the antibiotics group and complications through 90 days; analyses were prespecified in subgroups defined according to the presence or absence of an appendicolith.

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Article of interest: A randomized trial comparing antibiotics with appendectomy for appendicitis.

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CODA Collaborative, Flum DR, et al. A randomized trial comparing antibiotics with appendectomy for appendicitis. N Engl J Med. 2020 Oct 5. [Epub ahead of print.]

Full-text for Emory users.

Results: In total, 1552 adults (414 with an appendicolith) underwent randomization; 776 were assigned to receive antibiotics (47% of whom were not hospitalized for the index treatment) and 776 to undergo appendectomy (96% of whom underwent a laparoscopic procedure). Antibiotics were noninferior to appendectomy on the basis of 30-day EQ-5D scores (mean difference, 0.01 points; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.001 to 0.03). In the antibiotics group, 29% had undergone appendectomy by 90 days, including 41% of those with an appendicolith and 25% of those without an appendicolith. Complications were more common in the antibiotics group than in the appendectomy group (8.1 vs. 3.5 per 100 participants; rate ratio, 2.28; 95% CI, 1.30 to 3.98); the higher rate in the antibiotics group could be attributed to those with an appendicolith (20.2 vs. 3.6 per 100 participants; rate ratio, 5.69; 95% CI, 2.11 to 15.38) and not to those without an appendicolith (3.7 vs. 3.5 per 100 participants; rate ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.45 to 2.43). The rate of serious adverse events was 4.0 per 100 participants in the antibiotics group and 3.0 per 100 participants in the appendectomy group (rate ratio, 1.29; 95% CI, 0.67 to 2.50).

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