The Incidence rate of Acute Kidney Injury and Risk Factors among the Intensive Care Unit Inpatients

Acute kidney injury is a major problem in hospitalized patients, especially patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), which plays an important role in the outcome, hospitalization length, and treatment costs. The present study aimed to assess the incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI) and its risk factors in a sample of ICU patients.

This was a cohort case series study that evaluated 500 patients from ICU in of Alzahra hospital, Isfahan, Iran, during the year 2016-2017. In total, 2700 patients were admitted to 4 ICUs of this hospital, of which, 500 were randomly entered to the study. Demographic and lab data were gathered using a checklist, and patients were followed up by checking twice in a week. Finally, the incidence of AKI and its risk factors were determinate based on different variables.

The overall prevalence of AKI was 40.8%. The AKI group was classified according to Risk, Injury, Failure, Loss of kidney function, and End-stage kidney disease (RIFLE) criteria, which showed 44.6% at risk, 29.4% at injury, 18.1% at failure, and 7.8% at loss stages, respectively. The mean age (56.5 vs. 51.4 years), hospitalization time (29.38 vs. 12.92 days), and mortality (40% vs. 55) in patients with AKI were higher. Of 204 patients with AKI, 39% had complete recovery, 8% relative recovery, and 40% died. Moreover, 30 patients needed dialysis during the hospitalization, 13% of them became dialysis-dependent.

According to the data of this article on the high incidence of AKI in ICU, this complication is also one of the important problems of ICUs in our country, Iran. However, despite other similar articles, the mortality rate from AKI in this study is lower, which can indicate an improvement in preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic measures for this complication.