Antibiotic Dosing in Chronic Kidney Disease and End-Stage Renal Disease: A Focus on Contemporary Challenges

Infections are an important cause of morbidity and mortality among patients with chronic kidney disease. Therefore, appropriate antibiotic dosing is imperative to achieve positive patient outcomes while minimizing antibiotic dose-related toxicity. Accurately assessing renal function and determining the influence of renal replacement therapy on antibiotic clearance makes drug dosing in this patient population challenging. Furthermore, as technological advances in hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis occur, research incorporating newer dialysis parameters to guide drug dosing may not be readily available. Currently, there are limited data to guide drug dosing in the setting of automated peritoneal dialysis, short daily hemodialysis, and nocturnal hemodialysis. Antibiotic-dosing recommendations should be carefully evaluated considering the accuracy of the renal function assessment, the similarity of the operating characteristics of the renal replacement therapy studied compared with those being used, and whether the dosing strategy takes advantage of the pharmacodynamic profile of the antibiotic under consideration. After implementing the antibiotic-dosing regimen, therapeutic drug monitoring should occur when possible along with careful monitoring for antibiotic efficacy and safety.