The limitations of this study included its retrospective and observational design. Also, the study design prevented assessment of clinical outcomes. We cannot say for certain that age was the only factor influencing the need for q8h dosing. We performed basic statistical comparisons of mean age, sex, mean serum creatinine, and mean creatinine clearance (as calculated [...]

This study was undertaken to determine whether age less than 40 years predicts the need for more frequent vancomycin dosing. In the study population, patients under the age of 40 were 3 times more likely than older patients to require q8h dosing instead of q12h dosing.

Use of an aminoglycoside was the only variable that was significantly associated with the outcome. Patients with a prescription for an aminoglycoside were more likely to receive q8h dosing than patients without such a prescription (OR 6.7, 95% CI 1.8-25; p = 0.004). For 7 patients (5%), the vancomycin was prescribed for empiric q8h dosing, [...]

A total of 131 patients were included in the study: 58 cases in the q8h group and 73 controls in the q12h group. The authors believe that these groups represented the entire population of eligible patients during the study period, because it was not possible to identify any additional eligible patients for the time- frame [...]

Sample size was determined on the basis of a predicted OR of 3, with a desired power of 80% and a of 0.05. It was estimated that 100 controls and 50 cases (2:1 ratio) would be required. However, because of difficulty in locating an adequate number of controls, the ratio of cases to controls was [...]

A retrospective unmatched case—control study was conducted to examine vancomycin dosing frequency as a function of age. The study was conducted at St Paul’s Hospital, a 520-bed acute care teaching hospital located in downtown Vancouver. The pharmacy’s computer system was used to identify patients admitted to the hospital between October 2002 and August 2006 for [...]

INTRODUCTION Vancomycin is the drug of choice for hospital inpatients with severe methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. Although vancomycin is an effective bactericidal agent, literature reports of antibiotic failure with this drug are relatively common. Efforts to minimize the risk of antibiotic failure have led to a focus on how best to opti­mize vancomycin pharmacokinetics. [...]