© The Author [2008]. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of ERA-EDTA. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Short- and long-term survival after acute kidney injury
Division of Critical Care Medicine, University of Alberta Hospital, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Correspondence and offprint requests to: Sean M. Bagshaw, MD, MSc, FRCPC, Division of Critical Care Medicine, University of Alberta Hospital, 3C1.16 Walter C. Mackenzie Centre, 8440-122 Street, Edmonton, Alberta T6G2B7, Canada. Tel: +1-780-407-6755; Fax: +1-780-407-1228; E-mail: bagshaw@ualberta.ca
Keywords: acute kidney injury; dialysis; mortality; renal recovery; stroke
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
 |
Introduction |
|---|
Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a heterogeneous syndrome encompassing a broad spectrum of insults and changes in function that occur acutely to the kidneys [1]. This syndrome is increasingly encountered in sick hospitalized patients, in particular those admitted to intensive care [2–4]. This recent increase in the occurrence of AKI probably reflects not only changes in the characteristics of hospitalized patients (i.e. aging population, greater burden comorbid disease, severity of illness) but also perhaps a corollary of achievements made by modern medicine (i.e. more complex interventions, capability of advanced and prolonged life support) [5].
The development of AKI undoubtedly has important implications on both short- and long-term morbidity and mortality [6]. Observational data consistently indicate that 4–5% of all critically ill patients develop severe AKI and require initiation of renal replacement therapy (RRT) [7–9]. This cohort generally has a poor