Utilizing the Patient Care Process to Minimize the Risk of Vancomycin-Associated Nephrotoxicity

Vancomycin-associated acute kidney injury (AKI) is a popular topic in the medical literature with few clear answers. While many studies evaluate the risk of AKI associated with vancomycin, few data are high quality and/or long in duration of follow-up. This review takes the clinician through an approach to evaluate a patient for risk of AKI. This evaluation should include patient assessment, antibiotic prescription, duration, and monitoring. Patient assessment involves evaluating severity of illness, baseline renal function, hypotension/vasopressor use, and concomitant nephrotoxins. Evaluation of antibiotic prescription includes evaluating the need for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) coverage and/or vancomycin use. Duration of therapy has been shown to increase the risk of AKI. Efforts to de-escalate vancomycin from the antimicrobial regimen, including MRSA nasal swabs and rapid diagnostics, should be used to lessen the likelihood of AKI. Adequate monitoring includes therapeutic drug monitoring, ongoing fluid status evaluations, and a continual reassessment of AKI risk. The issues with serum creatinine make the timely evaluation of renal function and diagnosis of the cause of AKI problematic. Most notably, concomitant piperacillin-tazobactam can increase serum creatinine via tubular secretion, resulting in higher rates of AKI being reported. The few studies evaluating the long-term prognosis of AKI in patients receiving vancomycin have found that few patients require renal replacement therapy and that the long-term risk of death is unaffected for patients surviving after the initial 28-day period.