Failure of once-daily vancomycin for staphylococcal endocarditis.

With the emergence of staphylococci as important hospital pathogens, administration of vancomycin has increased dramatically. Economic and other factors have led to the development of once-daily dosing protocols to simplify and standardize the administration of antibiotics. A patient with Staphylococcus aureus prosthetic valve endocarditis and normal renal function failed therapy with vancomycin once/day. The infection was cured when the regimen was changed to the conventional 12-hour dosing interval.