Meropenem serves as a clinically important, broad-spectrum antibiotic. While meropenem is commonly used in obese patients, its pharmacokinetics in this patient group is not well known. Our aim was to characterize the population pharmacokinetics and target attainment in plasma, subcutaneous tissue and peritoneal fluid for meropenem in morbidly obese patients. Four doses of 1g meropenem were given as 15-min infusions every 8h to five morbidly obese patients (BMI: 47.6-62.3 kg/m2). After the fourth dose, serial meropenem concentrations were determined in plasma and, via microdialysis, in subcutaneous tissue and peritoneal fluid. All concentrations were simultaneously analyzed via population modeling and target attainment probabilities predicted via Monte Carlo simulations using the target of unbound meropenem concentrations above the MIC for at least 40% of the dosing interval.

 

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