Drug-Associated Acute Kidney Injury Identified in the United States Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System Database.

Study Objective: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common condition associated with both short-term and long-term consequences including dialysis, chronic kidney disease, and mortality. Although the United States Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database is a powerful tool to examine drug-associated events, to our knowledge, no study has analyzed this database to identify the most common drugs reported with AKI. The objective of this study was to analyze AKI reports and associated medications in the FAERS database.

Effect of an antimicrobial stewardship intervention on outcomes for patients with Clostridium difficile infection.

Background: Although antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are uniquely positioned to improve treatment of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) through targeted interventions, studies to date have not rigorously evaluated the influence of ASP involvement on clinical outcomes attributed to CDI.

Methods: We performed a quasiexperimental study of adult patients with CDI before (n = 307) and after (n = 285) a real-time ASP review was initiated. In the intervention group, an ASP pharmacist was notified of positive CDI results and consulted with the care team to initiate optimal therapy, minimize concomitant antibiotic and acid-suppressive therapy, and recommend surgical/infectious diseases consultation in complicated cases.