Learn pharmacokinetics
Vancomycin pharmacokinetics simulator
One-compartment model with linear elimination. Pick a preset or enter your own values; everything recalculates as you type.
How vancomycin moves through the body
Vancomycin is a glycopeptide antibiotic given by slow intravenous infusion, usually over at least an hour, to treat serious Gram-positive infections such as MRSA. It is barely absorbed from the gut, so the intravenous route is the only one that matters for systemic infection.
It is cleared almost entirely by the kidneys. Clearance therefore tracks kidney function closely, and the half-life stretches from around 6 to 9 hours in healthy adults to several days in kidney failure. That is why vancomycin dosing is individualised and checked with blood levels.
Older guidance aimed for a trough between 10 and 20 mg/L. Current guidance targets an AUC24 of roughly 400 to 600 mg·h/L, which gives the same effect with less kidney toxicity. In the simulator, try lowering clearance to see how quickly levels accumulate when the kidneys slow down.
Learn the concepts
Half-life
What elimination half-life means, how to calculate it from clearance and volume, and why it decides dosing frequency.
Steady state
Why repeated doses build up, why steady state takes about five half-lives, and what accumulation ratio means.
Area under the curve (AUC)
What AUC measures, how it relates to dose, bioavailability and clearance, and why vancomycin dosing now targets AUC.
Bioavailability
Oral bioavailability (F), first-pass metabolism, and why IV and oral doses of the same drug differ.
Loading dose
When and why a larger first dose is used, and how to calculate it from volume and target concentration.
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