2.1 Patient selection
We conducted a prospective open-label trial between September 2018 and August 2019 in the intensive care unit of the hospital. This study was conducted with approval from the Ethics Research Committee of the hospital. A total of 101 patients were selected for our study. Patients older than 18 years and younger than 80 years with severe infection were included. Some patients were excluded from our study based on exclusion criteria such as (i) expected death within 48 h or stay in the ICU shorter than 3 days; (ii) severe renal function impairment (CLCR<10 mL/min or renal replacement therapy); (iv) allergy to imipenem; and (v) CRRT. The patient selection procedure is shown in Fig 1.
Imipenem dosing regimens
Ultimately, 54 patients were selected for our research. All the participants were empirically treated with imipenem intravenously based on their physiological condition. The therapy began within 24 h of the microbiological sample collection. The dosing regimen was 500 mg every 8 h with a 1 h infusion. The treatment was not altered for the first 48 h of the regimen to ensure that the concentration of imipenem reached a steady level in vivo .