Antimicrobial therapy with aminoglycoside or meropenem in the intensive care unit for hospital associated infections and risk factors for acute kidney injury

There have historically been concerns of acute kidney injury (AKI) with the use of aminoglycosides. The present study aimed to compare the AKI incidence and mortality rate between critically ill patients treated with aminoglycoside or meropenem in the intensive care unit setting using a propensity score matching approach. This cross-sectional study was conducted at two university hospitals from January 2011 to October 2017. Clinical and laboratorial data were evaluated to exclude potential confounders and to calculate the Charlson index. AKI was classified according to the Acute Kidney Injury Network criteria. All tests were two-tailed, and a p value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant in the univariate and multivariate analyses. We included 494 patients, 95 and 399 of whom used meropenem and aminoglycoside, respectively. Patients in the subgroup that used meropenem were matched with controls (aminoglycoside). Among the 494 patients, 120 developed any grade of AKI (24.2%). After propensity score matching, there were no significant differences in AKI incidence and mortality rate between the aminoglycoside and meropenem groups (p = 0.324 and 0.464, respectively). Patients on the aminoglycoside regimen neither presented a higher AKI incidence nor mortality rate when compared with those on the meropenem regimen. Aminoglycosides may be a safe option for the treatment of critically ill patients on carbapenem sparing antimicrobial stewardship programs.