Pitfalls of pharmacokinetic dosage guidelines in renal insufficiency.

As the renal elimination of most drugs is closely correlated with the endogenous creatinine clearance, it is possible to use this parameter of kidney function to adjust drug dosage in renal failure. However, this simple procedure neglects possible changes in the volume of distribution, plasma protein binding, drug metabolism, intestinal absorption, and pharmacodynamics in renal insufficiency, as well as the occurrence of biologically active drug metabolites. Because of these uncertainties in critical cases the validity of the dosage calculated using the creatinine clearance should be checked by clinical surveillance and measurements of drug blood concentrations. Further, pharmacokinetic dosage guidelines based on the individual creatinine clearance may not be applicable to diuretics and drugs which have markedly differing kinetics of pharmacodynamic effects and blood levels.