Study designs of evaluations included in the review
Studies making comparisons between once-daily and multiple daily dosing; either with a control group or within patients, with at least 10 patients per treatment arm. Studies had to provide data on serum drug concentrations or baseline serum creatinine levels.
Specific interventions included in the review
Once-daily versus multiple daily dosing aminoglycosides (gentamicin, tobramycin or netilmicin with a dosage of at least 4mg/kg per day and amikacin with a dosage of at least 15 mg/kg per day). Combination therapy with other antibiotics was permitted, provided comparisons were made with a group receiving same/similar combination therapy.
Participants included in the review
People with infectious diseases, including gram infections, intra-abdominal infections, febrile infections, mixed infections and people undergoing colorectal surgery. Patient populations considered to have abnormal pharmacokinetic values were excluded (e.g. pediatric patients, pregnant women, people with burns, people undergoing dialysis).
Outcomes assessed in the review
Clinical effectiveness (assessed with objective criteria: temperature, bacterial cultures, white blood cell counts, etc, or a combination of objective and subjective criteria) and nephrotoxicity (defined as either an increase from baseline serum creatinine of 0.5 mg/dl or more or a 1.5-fold increase from baseline).
How were decisions on the relevance of primary studies made?
The authors do not state how the papers were selected for the review, or how many of the authors performed the selection.