A retrospective analysis of possible renal toxicity associated with vancomycin in patients with health care-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia

Objective: The goal of this investigation was to determine whether more aggressive vancomycin dosing is associated with greater risk for renal toxicity in patients with health care-associated pneumonia (HCAP) attributed to methicilllin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Methods: This was a retrospective, single-center, observational cohort study. The following information was obtained for all study patients from automated hospital, microbiology, and pharmacy databases: age, sex, weight, serial serum creatinine (SCr), age-and sex-adjusted creatinine clearance (CrCl) during receipt of vancomycin, vancomycin serum trough concentrations, duration of vancomycin therapy, and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation 11 scores. Renal toxicity was defined as either a 0.5-mg/dL increase from baseline in SCr or a >= 50% increase in SCr based on serial SCr measurements. Data for patients who met the definition of renal toxicity were compared with data for those who did not. Results: Ninety-four patients (mean [SD] age, 59.0 [15.6] years; 59 [62.8%] men; 73 (77.7%) white; mean baseline CrCl, 70.3 [23.0] mL/min) were identified as having MRSA HCAP Forty (42.6%) patients developed renal toxicity. Patients who developed renal toxicity were significantly more likely than patients who did not develop renal toxicity to have greater mean vancomycin serum trough concentrations (20.8 [9.9] mu g/mL vs 14.3 [6.7] mu g/mL, respectively; P < 0.001), vancomycin serum trough concentrations >= 15 mu g/mL (67.5% vs 40.7%; P = 0.01), and a prolonged duration (>= 14 days) of vancomycin treatment (45.0% vs 20.4%; P = 0.011). Logistic regression analysis identified a maximum vancomycin serum trough concentration of >= 15 mu g/mL as being independently associated with renal toxicity (adjusted odds ratio = 2.82; 95% CI, 1.02-7.74; P = 0.045). The overall mean change in CrCl for the study population was -13.5 (-16.0) mL/min (range, 0.0 to -62.6 mL/min). Patients with maximum measured vancomycin serum trough concentrations >= 15 mu g/mL (n = 49) had significantly greater absolute changes in CrCl compared with patients with maximum measured vancomycin serum trough concentrations <15 mu g/mL (n = 45) (-18.9 [-17.0] vs -7.6 [-12.5] mL/min, respectively; P < 0.001). Conclusions: The results suggest that aggressive vancomycin dosing and prolonged vancomycin administration may be associated with greater risk for renal toxicity in patients with MRSA HCAP. However, this retrospective study cannot establish causation, and a prospective, randomized, double-blind trial is needed.