Vancomycin elimination in patients with burn injury

Patients with burns clinically appear to require considerably larger doses of vancomycin than normal to attain therapeutic serum concentrations. It has been presumed that this phenomenon is a result of increased renal elimination of this drug consequent to increased glomerular filtration rates in such patients, as has been documented with aminoglycoside antibiotics. We measured the serum clearance of vancomycin in 10 patients with burns and found this parameter to correlate closely with creatinine clearance (serum clearance = 12.5 + 0.695 creatinine clearance; r = 0.932; P less than 0.001). The slope of this relationship was similar to that reported by other investigators in patients not suffering from thermal injury. We conclude that at all levels of renal function, patients with burns clear vancomycin in a manner similar to that of other patients. Consequently, renal function can be used to select a dosing regimen for vancomycin in such patients.