Recovery process in patients followed-up due to acute kidney injury

Introduction: Acute kidney injury (AKI) may result in complete recovery in some of the patients and partial recovery in others. AKI episodes may accelerate the progression to chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal failure, while risk for morbidity and mortality is high following AKI. Discharge of patients from the hospital, independently from dialysis is a crucial outcome. Many patients without a need for dialysis, require follow-up for various durations and different treatments. The objective of this study was to compare mean recovery time of the patients followed-up due to prerenal, renal and postrenal AKIs. Method: In this prospective observational study, a total of 159 patients hospitalized in Bulent Ecevit Hospital, clinic of nephrology or monitored in the other wards and intensive care unit due to AKI, between June 2011 and January 2012, were enrolled. The cases were divided into three groups as prerenal, renal and postrenal, and monitored with the daily visits and renal function testing. Results: Prerenal AKI was seen by 54%, while renal AKI was observed by 34% and post-renal AKI by 12%. Incidence of chronic kidney disease was 17.6%. Totally 43 patients required hemodialysis (27%). Of these patients, 23 were in the prerenal AKI (53.4%), 15 in the renal AKI (34.8%) and 5 (11.6%) in the postrenal AKI group. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine levels were dropped to the basal values only in the prerenal AKI group, on the seventh day of treatment. These levels remained higher in the postrenal and renal groups on the 7th day of treatment compared to the basal values. BUN levels decreased to the normal values on average 7th day in the postrenal, while remained higher in the renal group. Conclusion: Prerenal AKI patients recovered in seven days with a proper treatment, although AKI patients due to other reasons should be followed-up for a longer time.