RT Book, Section A1 Bhalodi, Amira Ashok A1 Nicolau, David P. A2 Hall, Jesse B. A2 Schmidt, Gregory A. A2 Kress, John P. SR Print(0) ID 1107719670 T1 Principles of Antimicrobial Therapy and the Clinical Pharmacology of Antimicrobial Drugs T2 Principles of Critical Care, 4e YR 2015 FD 2015 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9780071738811 LK accesssurgery.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1107719670 RD 2024/10/05 AB The altered pharmacokinetics of critically ill patients can greatly impact antimicrobial exposures. Recognizing these changes and optimizing antimicrobial administration to make certain appropriate pharmacodynamic targets are reached is crucial in ensuring successful outcomes.Understanding the impact of the MIC of the pathogen on overall free-drug exposures is important to be able to reach required pharmacodynamic targets of efficacy. Ultimately, organisms with high MICs will require a larger free-drug exposure compared with organisms with lower MICs.Patients with augmented renal function will exhibit enhanced clearance of antimicrobials, particularly β-lactams, and are at risk for subtherapeutic exposures. Therefore, these patients often require higher doses and more frequent administration of the antimicrobial.Antimicrobial stewardship focused on disease state management and selecting the appropriate antimicrobial therapy for the infecting pathogen is essential in preventing poor outcomes. In addition to poor outcomes, failure to treat infections appropriately can lead to the emergence of resistant organisms that become increasingly difficult to treat.Given the vast majority of antimicrobials are renally cleared, concentrations of antimicrobials are affected by continuous renal replacement therapy and therefore dosing should be modified accordingly to obtain adequate target exposures.