Vancomycin is an antibiotic with a narrow therapeutic-toxic margin. This means that the minimum and maximum target blood target levels differ little from each other. Too low concentrations will reduce the effect of the antibiotic; higher concentrations may result in serious side effects, including renal toxicity. Vancomycin dosing tailored to the critically ill child is challenging.~Currently, the starting dose of vancomycin is calculated on a milligram per kilogram basis, which is the same for all patients. The dose is then adjusted based on a measured vancomycin blood concentration (if too high or too low). Despite this measurement, quickly achieving target concentrations remains a major challenge.~This multicenter, individual randomized study investigates the added value of a user-friendly computer program for calculating the vancomycin dose in critically ill children, compared to the current standard-of-care. Specifically, the investigators will study whether the use of this computer program leads to a shorter time to reach target concentrations, a reduction in the number and severity of side effects on the kidney, a reduction in patient burden, and a reduction in time to cure and duration of hospitalization.
The overall objective of this project is to investigate the large-scale utility of MIPD of vancomycin at point-of-care in ICU children. This evaluation includes a comparison with the more standard approach on Clinical and patient-oriented measures.