A Survey of Pharmacists in Academia on the Current Practice of Estimation of Kidney Function for Antimicrobial Dosing in Adults.

To determine the methods used by pharmacists in academia to estimate kidney function for antimicrobial dosing.Stratified by region, a random sample of Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education recognized Colleges of Pharmacy was selected for a total of 40 programs. Identified college Web sites were reviewed for eligible participants using the predefined inclusion/exclusion criteria. This was used to create a sampling frame from which 30% and 20% of faculty were randomly chosen and invited to participate via e-mail and mail-administered surveys, respectively.Of the responders, 86% (31 of 36) who routinely estimate kidney function utilized the Cockcroft-Gault (CG) equation. In obese patients, 75% utilized the CG equation with or without adjustments. In patients ≥65 years, 42% adjusted serum creatinine to 1 mg/dL and 25% did not make any modifications. The majority of the responders accounted for patients with quadripalegia or bed-bound patients when estimating kidney function. In scenario examples, 51% (18 of 35) dosed an elderly female and 51% (18 of 35) a morbidly obese female as creatinine clearance ≥50 mL/min; however, 49% (17 of 35) did not.The majority of responders utilized the CG equation for estimating kidney function with or without adjustments. Although a number of consistencies were noted, discrepancies existed, especially with elderly and obese patients.