AKI patients have worse long-term outcomes, especially in the immediate post-ICU period
1 Department of Intensive Care Medicine, ICU, 2-K12C, Ghent University Hospital, De Pintelaan 185, 9000 Gent, Belgium
2 Research Foundation, Flanders, Egmontstraat 5, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
3 Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, AZ Groeninge Hospital, Pres. Kennedylaan 4, 8500 Kortrijk, Belgium
Critical Care 2012, 16:148 doi:10.1186/cc11470
See related research article by Gammelager et al., http://ccforum.com/content/16/4/R124
Published: 27 August 2012Abstract
Acute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with worse outcome in the acute phase of acute illness but also in the chronic phase. In a large Danish study in this issue of Critical Care, 1-year mortality was higher in patients with AKI than in patients without AKI. Mortality was most important during the first 50 days after admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), whereas after 2 months the survival curves of patients with AKI and those of patients without AKI were similar. The reasons for this observation are not clear, but protracted critical illness and fragility after acute critical illness probably play important roles. Because we see more and more of these patients, they should be the focus of ICU research. Consequently, ICU and post-ICU care for these patients requires focus and a more integrated approach to the specific problems of these survivors of acute critical illness.
