National survey of once-daily dosing of aminoglycoside antibiotics

To evaluate the scope of once-daily dosing of intravenous aminoglycoside antibiotics, a questionnaire was designed and mailed to a random sample of pharmacy directors at 500 acute care hospitals in the United States. The response rate was 68.4%. Nineteen percent of the respondents reported use of once-daily dosing of aminoglycosides. Affiliation with a pharmacy residency program and the presence of a pharmacokinetic consultation service by the pharmacy department were associated with this practice (p < 0.05). No other statistically significant differences were found. Reported indications, contraindications, and dosing were consistent with those found in the literature. The profession of pharmacy, as demonstrated by pharmacy residency programs and pharmacokinetic consultation services, appears to have been instrumental in implementing this method of dosing aminoglycosides.