Loading Vancomycin Doses in the Emergency Department

Overview

In 2008, our ED administered an average of 245 doses of vancomycin per month. Currently there is no consistency in the ED practice in regards to vancomycin dosing. In 2009, the IDSA put forth new recommendations for vancomycin dosing in order to achieve therapeutic levels more rapidly. It has been hypothesized that if therapeutic levels are reached more rapidly then patients will in turn have better clinical outcomes and that the development of resistant organisms will be decreased. Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has emerged as one of the most deadly pathogens that are currently plaguing our patient population. Vancomycin is one of only a few antibiotics that are effective for treating MRSA. It is imperative that the ED physicians consistently and correctly dose vancomycin in order to give the patients the best chance to fight infection while helping to prevent further resistance in this already highly resistant organism. It is believed this study will reveal that the new dosing recommendations by the IDSA will lead to the achievement of therapeutic levels more rapidly. This information will in turn help to convince ED physicians that a change in current clinical practice is warranted and ultimately lead to better clinically outcomes for the patients.

Recently, the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) has released new dosing recommendations for intravenous (IV) vancomycin. These new recommendations suggest administering an initial dose of 25-30 mg/kg of vancomycin as opposed to 10-15 mg/kg which is more traditionally done. Currently in the Emergency Department (ED) some practitioners are using the new IDSA dosing recommendations for vancomycin, while other practitioners have not changed their clinical practice. There is currently little data available to suggest that implementing these new vancomycin dosing regimens in the ED will achieve therapeutic vancomycin levels more rapidly than our traditional dosing practice.