Renal Insufficiency Associated with Gentamicin Therapy

Abstract

The records of 100 consecutive patients treated with gentamicin at a university hospital were studied for evidence of nephrotoxicity due to gentamicin. Inadequate monitoring of renal function was found in 23 cases; among the remaining 71 patients who were given 77 courses of gentamicin, 32 had renal insufficiency during treatment as manifested by increases in blood urea nitrogen and serum creatinine. The role of gentamicin in these instances of renal insufficiency was unclear in the majority of cases, but gentamicin was thought to be the major cause of renal failure in five cases. None of the patients died of renal failure, and in all patients the indices of renal function returned to pretreatment values after the drug was stopped. The results suggest that all patients treated with gentamicin deserve more adequate monitoring of renal function and point out the need for large scale studies to identify those patients with the greatest risk of nephrotoxicity.