Colistin nephrotoxicity in critically ill patients after implementation of a new dosing strategy

Intravenous colistin is increasingly used to treat multidrug-resistant Gram-negative infections. Highly variable nephrotoxicity rates have been reported. Recent PK/PD studies propose a loading dose and a maintenance dose for better efficacy, but data on the renal toxicity of such regimens are rare. This study aimed to evaluate the incidence and risk factors for nephrotoxicity related to colistin after implementation of a new dosing regimen including a loading dose.

This was a prospective observational study that was made between adult patients who received a minimum of 48 hours of intravenous colistin from December 2012 to January 2014 at the medical and surgical intensive care units (ICU) of a university hospital. The severity of acute kidney injury (AKI) was defined by the RIFLE criteria.

Fifty-nine patients met the inclusion criteria, and 31 (52.5%) developed nephrotoxicity. The APACHE-II score was > 15 in 81% of patients. The median time to nephrotoxicity was 7 days. Patients with AKI were in risk (10.2%), injury (16.9%), failure (25.4%), and none of the patients developed permanent renal insufficiency. A logistic regression model identified three predictors of colistin-associated nephrotoxicity: age; the number of days that estimated target plasma concentrations of colistin were ≥ 3.5 mg/L in the first week of therapy; and baseline creatinine level.

In this cohort of severely ill ICU patients, colistin led to a relatively high rate of nephrotoxicity. Further studies are needed to identify the optimal dose for both efficacy and safety.