Clinical and microbiological efficacy of continuous versus intermittent administration of vancomycin in critical care patients

Abstract

Patients admitted to the interdisciplinary ICU suffering from infection indicated to vancomycin administration with predicted duration of treatment of at least 4 days were randomized to receive either a 15 mg/kg intravenous loading dose of vancomycin followed by a daily 15 mg/kg continuous infusion (continuous group) or intermittent administration of 15 mg/kg vancomycin intravenously every 12 hours (intermittent group). Antibiotic therapy was stopped at improvement of clinical state and laboratory signs of subsidence of infection. Failure of antimicrobial therapy was defined as persistence or progression of signs and symptoms of infection, development of new clinical findings consistent with active infection or death from infection. A total of 65 patients were enrolled and randomized in the continuous (n = 33) and intermittent (n = 32) groups.