Pharmacists,

 

I've had a couple of questions recently regarding our automatic dose interchange for levofloxacin 500 mg to 750 mg.  Since it has been a while since this program began, I wanted to briefly review this policy.

 

Through a P&T approved program, pharmacists can automatically adjust orders for levofloxacin 500 mg to 750 mg if indicated, after thorough pharmacotherapy review.  This change was made due to an update in dosing recommendations to take advantage of the concentration dependent killing of fluoroquinolones.  When making a dose adjustment for renal impairment, if the patient qualifies for the automatic dose adjustment to 750 mg you can then use the renal dose adjustments for the 750 mg dose instead of the 500 mg dose regimen. (For 750 mg dose: Clcr 20-49 = 750 mg q48h; Clcr 10-19 = 500 mg q48h; HD/CAPD = 500 mg q48h)

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

Thank you,