Prospective Trial on the Use of Trough Concentration versus Area under the Curve To Determine Therapeutic Vancomycin Dosing.

We hypothesized that dosing vancomycin to achieve trough concentrations of >15 mg/liter overdoses many adults compared to area under the concentration-time curve (AUC)-guided dosing. We conducted a 3-year, prospective study of vancomycin dosing, plasma concentrations, and outcomes. In year 1, nonstudy clinicians targeted trough concentrations of 10 to 20 mg/liter (infection dependent) and controlled dosing.

Are vancomycin trough concentrations adequate for optimal dosing?

The current vancomycin therapeutic guidelines recommend the use of only trough concentrations to manage the dosing of adults with Staphylococcus aureus infections. Both vancomycin efficacy and toxicity are likely to be related to the area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC). We assembled richly sampled vancomycin pharmacokinetic data from three studies comprising 47 adults with various levels of renal function.