Background: Acute kidney injury is a common problem highly associated with hospitalization. Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is associated with severe morbidity and mortality especially in children. Lack of consensus definition has been major limitation in improving outcomes. This study tries to address the need of limited data on pediatric AKI. Detection of the incidence, etiological profile and outcome of AKI is important for the initiation of preventive and therapeutic strategies, identifying patients early to avoid renal replacement therapy.Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of tertiary hospital (GMC Srinagar) between January 2015 to December 2016.This is the only prospective study conducted in this hospital, all other studies conducted here and other higher centers were retrospective. Serum creatinine level was estimated on all patients on admission and alternate days till discharge from Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Urine output was recorded. Estimated Creatinine- Clearance (eCrCL) was calculated using Schwartz formula. AKI diagnosis and staging was based on pRIFLE (pediatric RIFLE) criteria. eCrCl criteria was used to diagnose and stage AKI. Maximal stage that the patient progressed during the stay in PICU was assigned the stage for that case.Results: Of total 500 cases, 480 cases met inclusion criteria. Of them, the incidence of AKI was 154 (32.1%). Stage ‘Risk (R)’, ‘Injury (I)’ and ‘Failure (F)’ constituted 93(60.38%), 46 (29.8%) and15 (9.74%) respectively. Maximum AKI occurred in <1 year (30.5%). Infections were commonest etiology. Amongst infections sepsis (30.5%) was most common, followed by acute gastroenteritis (20.7%) and pneumonia (16.9%). Hypotension, nephrotoxic drugs, sepsis, need for mechanical ventilation were significant (p<0.001) risk factors for AKI. Pre-renal causes constituted 68% and intrinsic renal 32%.Conclusions: The incidence of AKI is high among critically ill children. AKI continues to be associated with adverse outcomes. pRIFLE staging system provides early identification and stratification of AKI. Infections are leading etiology of AKI in children.
Impact of the development of acute kidney injury on patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit
