Individualised vancomycin doses for paediatric burn patients to achieve PK/PD targets.

BACKGROUND: The objective of the study was to investigate vancomycin dose adjustment in pediatric burn patients by evaluating trough drug concentrations and the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) correlation. METHODS: Study subjects included 13 patients who were 6.0 years old, 25 kg (median). with normal renal function. These had at least a 30% total burn surface area and inhalation injury were present in 7/13 patients. The patients were investigated prospectively. Plasma monitoring and PK assessments were performed by serial blood sample collections (30 sets). Only 0.2 mL of each plasma sample was required for our plasma measurements, which were made by high performance liquid chromatography. The vancomycin PK/PD target was set at AUC0-24(ss)/MIC>400. RESULTS: Trough values less than 10 µg/mL were obtained in 16/30 sets (53%) as a consequence of increased plasma clearance and the apparent volume of distribution. The daily dose was subsequently increased from 43.4 ± 9.0mg/kg (mean ± SD) to 98.0 ± 17.9 mg/kg, p<0.05. The PK/PD target was reached for pathogens with 0.5mg/L, 1mg/L, 2mg/L and 4 mg/L MIC in 93.3% (28/30), 66.7% (20/30), 33.3% (10/30) and 3.3% (1/30) of the sets, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: To more rapidly achieve the PK/PD targets in pediatric burn patients with normal renal function, an initial dose of approximately 90-100mg/kg/day is recommended; however, this higher dosage regimen should be further evaluated in this population in terms of efficacy and toxicity as well as in terms of achieving pharmacodynamic goals.