Comparing Acute Kidney Injury Reports Among Antibiotics: A Pharmacovigilance Study of the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS)

Background A study using the US FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) found significant acute kidney injury (AKI) reporting associations with vancomycin, fluoroquinolones, penicillin combinations, and trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole. Other antibiotics may also lead to AKI, but no study has systemically compared AKI reporting associations for many available antibiotics. Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the reporting associations between AKI and many available antibiotics using FAERS. Methods FAERS reports from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2017 were included in the study. The Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) was used to identify AKI cases. Reporting odds ratios (RORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the reporting associations between antibiotics and AKI were calculated. A reporting association was considered statistically significant when the lower limit of the 95% CI was > 1.0. Results A total of 2,042,801 reports (including 20,138 AKI reports) were considered. Colistin had the greatest proportion of AKI reports, representing 25% of all colistin reports. AKI RORs (95% CI) for antibiotics were, in descending order: colistin 33.10 (21.24–51.56), aminoglycosides 17.41 (14.49–20.90), vancomycin 15.28 (13.82–16.90), trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole 13.72 (11.94–15.76), penicillin combinations 7.95 (7.09–8.91), clindamycin 6.46 (5.18–8.04), cephalosporins 6.07 (5.23–7.05), daptomycin 6.07 (4.61–7.99), macrolides 3.60 (3.04–4.26), linezolid 3.48 (2.54–4.77), carbapenems 3.31 (2.58–4.25), metronidazole 2.55 (1.94–3.36), tetracyclines 1.73 (1.26–2.36), and fluoroquinolones 1.71 (1.49–1.97). Conclusion This study found 14 classes of antibiotics having significant reporting associations with AKI. Among the antibiotics evaluated in this study, colistin had the highest AKI ROR and moxifloxacin had the lowest.