Impact of hypoalbuminemia on clinical outcomes among patients with obesity treated with ceftriaxone

The use of ceftriaxone, a highly protein-bound drug, in the setting of hypoalbuminemia may result in suboptimal drug exposure. Patients with obesity also exhibit higher absolute drug clearance. We aimed to evaluate the impact of hypoalbuminemia on clinical success among hospitalized adults with obesity who were treated with ceftriaxone. This retrospective review included adult inpatients with weight >100 kg or body mass index >40 kg/m² who received ceftriaxone 2 g intravenously every 12 hours for at least 72 hours. The primary outcome was clinical success, a composite of clinical cure and microbiologic cure. Secondary outcomes included clinical cure, microbiologic cure, length of stay, ICU length of stay, mortality, 30-day readmission, and adverse events. In all, 137 patients were included, 34 of whom had a serum albumin of ≤2.5 g/dL. In a propensity-score-weighted analysis, clinical success was significantly more common among those without hypoalbuminemia (91.2%) as compared to those with hypoalbuminemia (77.8%) (P = 0.038). Death within 30 days (13.7% vs 0%, P < 0.001) and 30-day readmission (31.6% vs 12.0%, P = 0.008) were more common in the hypoalbuminemia group. In a univariate analysis, serum albumin and indication for ceftriaxone use were found to be predictors of clinical success. Hypoalbuminemia was associated with a lower rate of clinical success among patients with obesity who were treated with ceftriaxone 2 g every 12 hours.