Adding to the complexity of caring for critically ill patients is the fact that many of them have a creatinine clearance that exceeds 130 mL/min/1.73 m2. This phenomenon, termed augmented renal clearance (ARC), has only recently been widely recognized and its pathogenesis remains incompletely understood. However, ARC has been shown to result in increased dose requirements for drugs that are primarily eliminated by renal excretion, including many antimicrobial agents and enoxaparin. Recognition of ARC is hampered by the fact that the standard creatinine-based equations used to estimate renal function are not accurate in this clinical setting and the diagnosis is best established using both serum and urine creatinine measurements to calculate clearance. So a high index of clinical suspicion and awareness is usually required before this step is taken to confirm the diagnosis of ARC.
Keywords: Antimicrobial agents; Augmented renal clearance; Critically ill patients; Drug dose requirements.
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