Antibiotic lock: in vitro stability of vancomycin and four percent sodium citrate stored in dialysis catheters at 37 degrees C.

Catheter-related bacteremia (CRB) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality especially among patients receiving hemodialysis (HD). Antibiotic lock therapy represents a promising technique in the treatment of CRB. Several studies have evaluated antibiotics in combination with heparin as an interdialytic locking solution as adjunctive therapy for CRB. The objective of this study was to evaluate the chemical stability of the vancomycin in 4% sodium citrate in HD catheters as an interdialytic lock. Vancomycin was prepared and diluted with sodium citrate 4% and stored in polyvinyl chloride syringes, 2 carbothane dialysis catheters (Hemostar) and 2 dual floating HD catheters (CardioMed). Syringes were stored at 4 degrees C or 23 degrees C and the catheters were stored in an incubator at 37 degrees C for 72 hours. Samples underwent daily chromatographic analysis and the luminal concentration of vancomycn was determined on study days 0, 1, and 3. When vancomycin is reconstituted with normal saline to achieve a concentration of 50 mg/mL, and then further diluted in 4% sodium citrate, to achieve concentrations of either 1 or 3 mg/mL, and then stored at 4 degrees C, room temperature, or 37 degrees C, solutions were observed to retain >92% of the initial concentration for the study period of 3 days. Based on the fastest degradation rate determined with 95% confidence interval, >90% is retained for 6.53 days. We conclude that vancomycin-4% citrate solutions stored in polyvinyl chloride syringes or HD catheters are not significantly affected by temperature or concentration within the 72 hours storage period. Therefore, these solutions can be anticipated to be suitable as a HD interdialytic antibiotic lock in standard HD catheters.