The following is a summary of “Epidemiology of renal replacement therapy for critically ill patients across seven health jurisdictions,” published in the June 2024 issue of Nephrology by Ziegler et al.
Acute kidney injury (AKI) requiring renal replacement therapy (RRT) is a severe issue in ICUs and is linked with high rates of illness and death. However, global data on how often RRT is used and its outcomes are lacking.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to fill this gap by describing the prevalence of RRT use and patient outcomes across various large health system jurisdictions.
They used comprehensive databases from seven countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, Scotland, USA) from 2006 to 2023. The study excluded patients with end-stage kidney disease receiving chronic RRT and patients with a history of renal transplant.
The results showed 4,104,480 patients in ICU and 3,520,516 patients on mechanical ventilation (MV). Of these, 156,403 patients (3.8%) in ICU and 240,824 patients in MV (6.8%) received RRT for AKI. In the ICU cohort, the lowest proportion of patients treated with RRT was in Australia and Brazil (3.3%) and the highest in Scotland (9.2%). Mortality among patients in ICU receiving RRT was significantly higher (57.1%) compared to those not receiving RRT (16.8%), with varying rates across jurisdictions (37-65%).
Investigators concluded that patients’ outcomes after receiving RRT in ICUs differ globally, and the patients receiving RRT played a significant role in the differences.
Source: karger.com/ajn/article/doi/10.1159/000539811/909487/Epidemiology-of-renal-replacement-therapy-for