Vancomycin is a glycopeptide antibiotic medication used to treat a number of bacterial infections. It is recommended intravenously as a treatment for complicated skin infections, bloodstream infections, endocarditis, bone and joint infections, and meningitis caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Blood levels may be measured to determine the correct dose. Vancomycin is also taken by mouth as a treatment for severe Clostridium difficile colitis. When taken by mouth it is poorly absorbed.Common side effects include pain in the area of injection and allergic reactions. Occasionally, hearing loss, low blood pressure, or bone marrow suppression occur. Safety in pregnancy is not clear, but no evidence of harm has been found, and it is likely safe for use when breastfeeding. It is a type of glycopeptide antibiotic and works by blocking the construction of a cell wall.Vancomycin was approved for medical use in the United States in 1958. It is on the World Health Organizations List of Essential Medicines. The World Health Organization classifies vancomycin as critically important for human medicine. It is available as a generic medication. Vancomycin is made by the soil bacterium Amycolatopsis orientalis. Medical uses
Vancomycin is indicated for the treatment of serious, life-threatening infections by Gram-positive bacteria unresponsive to other antibiotics. The increasing emergence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci has resulted in the development of guidelines for use by the Centers for Disease Control Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee.
Acute infective endocarditis refers to the presence of signs and symptoms of infective endocarditis that are present for days up to six weeks. If these signs and symptoms persist for more than six weeks but less than three months, this is subacute infective endocarditis. Chronic infective endocarditis refers to the presence of such signs and symptoms when they persist for more than three months. Subacute bacterial endocarditis (SBE) is often due to streptococci of low virulence (mainly viridans streptococci) and mild to moderate illness which progresses slowly over weeks and months (>2 weeks) and has low propensity to hematogenously seed extracardiac sites. Acute bacterial endocarditis (ABE) is a fulminant illness over days to weeks (<2 weeks), and is more likely due to Staphylococcus aureus, which has much greater virulence or disease-producing capacity and frequently causes metastatic infection.This classification is now discouraged, because the ascribed associations (in terms of organism and prognosis) were not strong enough to be relied upon clinically. The terms short incubation (meaning less than about six weeks) and long incubation (greater than about six weeks) are preferred. Culture results
Infective endocarditis may also be classified as culture-positive or culture-negative. By far the most common cause of "culture-negative" endocarditis is prior administration of antibiotics.Sometimes microorganisms can take a longer period of time to grow in the culture media, for example Cutibacterium spp. and the HACEK bacteria group. Some organisms are said to be fastidious because they have demanding growth requirements. Some examples include pathogens like Aspergillus species, Brucella species, Coxiella burnetii, Chlamydia species.