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. 1983 Apr;23(4):603–609. doi: 10.1128/aac.23.4.603

Effects of hepatic function on vancomycin clinical pharmacology.

N Brown, D H Ho, K L Fong, L Bogerd, A Maksymiuk, R Bolivar, V Fainstein, G P Bodey
PMCID: PMC184709  PMID: 6859839

Abstract

Using a recently developed radioimmunoassay, we performed 15 vancomycin pharmacology studies in cancer patients with infections. Vancomycin (500 mg) was infused intravenously for 30 min every 6 h for up to 7 days. The plasma disappearance curve was biphasic, with an initial half-life of less than 30 min. The second half-life (t1/2 beta), not dose related, varied from 1.4 to 231 h among the patients. In six studies of patients with normal hepatic functions, the t1/2 beta was 2.6 h; the rate of total clearance was 162 ml/min. In contrast, nine studies of patients with impaired liver function had a much longer t1/2 beta (37 h) and a decrease in the rate of total clearance to 48 ml/min. These factors resulted in an increase in the value of area under the concentration-time curve from 59 to 3,434 micrograms X h/ml. These results have demonstrated the importance of the effects of liver function on vancomycin disposition. The vancomycin dose and schedule should be adjusted for patients with liver impairment.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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