Antibiotic dosing adjustments in patients with declined kidney function at a tertiary hospital in Jordan

Estimating kidney function is essential to consider in drug dosing for renally eliminated drugs. It has been estimated that more than half of medications' adverse effects are caused by the inappropriate dosing. Limited data are available on drug dosing adjustment, particularly the antibiotics, among Jordanian patients with declined kidney function.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the extent of antibiotics' dose adjustment according to the recent guidelines of drugs' renal dose adjustment.

The present study utilised data from a previous retrospective study, which recruited inpatients who were clinically stable and received IV antibiotics for more than 24 hours at King Abdullah University Hospital. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected by referring to information technology departments at KAUH. The percentage of antibiotics which were inappropriately adjusted based on creatinine clearance was evaluated using Lexicomp-Clinical Drug information website.

A total of 110 antibiotics were dispensed for 80 patients. Results showed that (36.25%) of patients were given antibiotics without renal dose adjustments based on their creatinine clearance. Urinary tract infections followed by respiratory tract infections were the most common among the study participants. The most commonly prescribed antibiotic was Imipenem/cilastatin (41.25%). Among antibiotics prescribed without renal dose adjustment, Imipenem/cilastatin was the most common and represented 62% of the cases while vancomycin was the least and represented only 3.45% of the non-renally adjusted doses.

The current study clearly demonstrates the lack of adherence to recent guidelines of renal dose adjustment for renally excreted antibiotics. Such findings shed the light on the necessity of considering antibiotics dose adjustment in patients with declined kidney function with the aim of ensuring medication safety and improve health outcomes.