The following is a summary of “Recovery after AKI: Effects on outcomes over 15 years,” published in the February 2023 issue of the Critical Care by Peerapornratana et al.

This study aims to investigate the impact of renal recuperation on mortality, dialysis, and kidney transplantation within a 15-year timeframe following acute kidney injury. Researchers studied 29,726 survivors of critical illness and compared these outcomes stratified by AKI and recovery status at hospital discharge. Kidney recovery was defined as a return of serum creatinine to ≤150% of baseline without dialysis before hospital discharge. 

AKI occurred in 59.2%, of which two-thirds developed stages 2–3. The recovery rate from Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) at hospital discharge was 80.8%. Patients who did not achieve recovery exhibited the highest 15-year mortality rate compared to those who achieved recovery and those who did not develop AKI (57.8% vs. 45.2% vs. 30.3%, P< 0.001). 

This observed trend was similarly noted among subsets of individuals with suspected sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (AKI) (57.1% vs. 47.9% vs. 36.5%, P < 0.001) and cardiac surgery-associated AKI (60.1% vs. 41.8% vs. 25.9%, P< 0.001). The rates of dialysis and transplantation at 15 years were low and not associated with recovery status. The recovery of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) in critically ill patients during hospital discharge has been observed to impact long-term mortality, lasting up to 15 years significantly. These findings have substantial implications for acute medical management, post-treatment monitoring, and selecting outcome measures for clinical research.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0883944123000291