Augmented renal clearance (ARC) is a recently reported condition in pathophysiology of critically ill patients in the intensive care unit. ARC refers to the enhanced renal elimination of circulating solutes. These patients are either young or previously healthy people who have undergone surgery or multiple trauma.This case report describes an adjustment of dosing regime of vancomycin to a young patient, who demonstrated ARC with severe polytrauma, overcome crush syndrome and sepsis. This 16-year old male patient was crushed by a tractor, which caused severe tissue damaged in the right lower limb. He gradually developed a serious crush syndrome. When kidneys resumed their function, creatinine clearance reached the value that indicated ARC (339.81 mL/min/1.73 m2). Vancomycin was included in the patient’s treatment regime by administering conventional dose of 1 g per 12 hours. The residual measured levels were very low. The dose of vancomycin had to be adjusted to double and then to triple the conventional dose. Without the therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) and subsequent interpretation of the results by the clinical pharmacists, such high doses would not have been considered for administration.ARC responds strongly to sub-therapeutic serum vancomycin levels. Our case report confirms the significance of TDM and the consecutive interpretation of the results in critically ill patients.

Objective: Malnutrition is common in patients admitted to hospital due to acute illness and contributes to negative patient outcomes. In Slovakia there is a lack of relevant data on malnutrition in hospitalized patients, particularly based on chronic co-morbidity and survival. The aim of the present study was to explore the prevalence of malnutrition in hospitalized chronic patients, its relationship to co-morbidity and its impact on 10-year survival. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Nutritional status was estimated by Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), BMI and serum albumin level. Survival was assessed from the National Insurance Registry over a 10-year period. The association between nutritional status measured by SGA and 10-year survival controlling for age, gender, BMI and serum albumin was analysed using Cox regression. Subjects: Data were taken from the medical records of 202 consecutively admitted chronic patients. Results: Median age was 63·5 years; 55·4 % were males; median BMI was 25·9 kg/m 2 ; median serum albumin level was 39·0 g/l. Based on SGA evaluation, 38·1 % did not have sufficient nutritional status (SGA classification B and C). Malnutrition was more common in patients who were older (P = 0·023), with lower BMI (P < 0·001), who had gastrointestinal (P = 0·049) and oncologic co-morbidity (P = 0·021) and lower albumin level (P = 0·049). In-hospital mortality was 3 %, but during the following 10 years 52 % died. Cox regression analysis controlling for age, gender, BMI and serum albumin showed that SGA was an independent predictor of death (hazard ratio = 1·55; 95 % CI 1·04, 2·32; P = 0·031). Conclusions: SGA is a simple screening tool that can be routinely used in hospitalized Slovak medical patients to predict the risk of death. Improving patient nutrition could thus reduce mortality.

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Aminoglycoside antibiotics have particular importance in the treatment of Gram-negative infections. Toxicity of gentamicin is well-known, but patients often receive insufficient dosage in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to refer to the problem of insufficient dosages that were confirmed by low peak concentration and to determine relationship between low peak levels and pharmacokinetic parameters, renal function and body weight.We studied 68 patients who were treated with gentamicin for one year (August 2010 -August 2011). Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) was applied for all the patients. Gentamicin peak and trough concentrations were measured by the FPIA (Fluorescence Polarization Immunoassay) method with an analyser, AxSYM of ABBOTT company. We divided the patients into 3 groups according to peak and trough levels.Together 13 (19%) patients had high trough concentrations and optimal peak concentrations. Only 6 (9%) patients had optimal trough and peak levels in the first measurement of plasma concentrations. The third group included 49 patients (72%). These patients had optimal trough levels and low peak levels in the first measurement. 34 patients of the third group (28 males, 6 females) had optimal peak levels after adjustment of dosage in the second measurement. 15 patients, only males did not reach optimal peak levels even after adjustment of dosage in the second measurement.The patients with low peak levels of gentamicin are more frequent than patients with toxic adverse effects in clinical practice. Especially, these are the patients with higher value of body weight and following increased pharmacokinetic parameters: creatinine clearance, total volume of distribution, total clearance and elimination rate constant. The clinical pharmacists have to adjust dosage regimens, especially according to Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) and clinical experience. The results of the study have confirmed that the clinical pharmacists must adjust dose regimen not only for patients who require reduced doses but more often for patients who require higher doses than are commonly used in clinical practice. These patients are at risk of underdosing of aminoglycoside antibiotics.

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