Jefferson L. Triozzi, M.D.
Jefferson L. Triozzi, M.D.

@nepherson

18 Tweets 8 reads Feb 25, 2021
1/18
Let’s talk vancomycin and the kidney.🧪
A 65 y/o woman on week 4 of IV vancomycin for ankle osteomyelitis presents with AKI (Cr 6.32mg/dL) and elevated vancomycin level (136 mg/dL).
What’s to blame?
#tweetorial #MedTwitter #Nephtwitter #FOAMed #TwitterRx @TheSkeletonKG
2/18
Vancomycin nephrotoxicity is a challenging diagnosis because elevated vanc levels may be the cause and/or the effect of acute kidney injury.
Vanc nephrotoxicity is a diagnosis of exclusion based on:
◼️AKI
◼️Elevated vanc level
◼️No more likely explanation
3/18
The original vancomycin formulation earned the nickname Mississippi Mud (‘Sippi Mud for the locals) due to its muddy color and many nephrotoxins 🐷🐷🐷
The modern vancomycin formulation is 95% pure, but is associated with 2.45 relative risk of AKI
pubmed.gov
4/18
Above what vancomycin concentration do you consider nephrotoxicity? 🎚️🎚️🎚️
5/18
There is no specific vancomycin concentration that causes nephrotoxicity.
Nevertheless, vancomycin nephrotoxicity is associated with:
⚠️higher vanc trough (>15mg/L)
⚠️greater daily dosage (>4g/d)
⚠️longer tx duration (>7 days)
pubmed.gov
6/18
Which of the patient’s comorbidities is likely a risk factor for vancomycin nephrotoxicity?☠️☠️☠️
7/18
Obesity is considered a risk factor for vancomycin nephrotoxicity because vancomycin dosing uses ‘actual body weight.’
👉 higher actual body weight
👉 more volume of distribution
👉 require higher Vanc dose
👉 more nephrotoxicity risk
8/18
🗝️🗝️🗝️
A key concept for safe and effective vanc dosing is:
A U C = Area Under the Curve
Vancomycin pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics are dependent on both “time” and “concentration,” which together are conceptualized as “AUC”
9/18
AUC = Area Under the Curve of drug concentration over time.
How can we estimate the AUC ?📏📏📏
10/18
Guidelines recommend Bayesian computer software to guide vanc dosing based on predicted AUC
Manual pharmacokinetic calculations of AUC are too cumbersome
Sure, you could draw vanc levels every 5 minutes to plot AUC, but please don’t. Ouch!💉💉💉
idsociety.org
11/18
⛰️⛰️⛰️
Vanc trough dosing is another dosing method
Vanc trough level is obtained prior to 4th dose in steady-state
Goal trough 15-20 mg/L for serious MRSA infxns (blood, CNS, bone, lung)
Trough-only dosing is no longer recommended in guideline, but remains widely used!
12/18
AUC-guided vanc dosing may pose less risk of nephrotoxicity than trough-only vanc dosing.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
How do you dose vancomycin at your institution???
13/18
Back to our patient — suspected vancomycin nephrotoxicity.
What’s your first move?
14/18
Correct! Vancomycin nephrotoxicity usually improves with drug cessation and supportive care. In this case, kidney function worsened and hemodialysis was required.
How much will the vancomycin levels decrease after 1 session of hemodialysis?
15/18
⛽Vancomycin levels decrease ~30-40% after 1 session dialysis
⛽Elevated vancomycin levels are not an indication for dialysis, per se
⛽Instead, refractory kidney failure related to vancomycin may prompt other indications for dialysis (AEIOU)
16/18
After a comprehensive workup to rule out other causes of AKI, this case of vancomycin nephrotoxicity was clear as Mississippi Mud. This was a severe case with protracted recovery. Fortunately, after 8 wks our patient recovered kidney function and dc'd hemodialysis.
17/18
In summary:
1️⃣ Vancomycin is associated with nephrotoxicity
2️⃣ Elevated vanc levels alone do not make the diagnosis of nephrotoxicity; consider other causes of AKI
3️⃣ AUC-guided vanc dosing is preferred over trough-only dosing
18/18
Check out the fantastic visual abstract and blog post:
renalfellow.org
Special thank you to these great people, among many others! @SaiAchi1 @cdchu @kidney_boy @DTomacruzMD @SaynaNorouzi
@kkalra_22 @jamiekwillows @NephroGuy @Nephro_Sparks @Tiff_Caza @AnnaGaddy

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