Characteristics and risk factors of postoperative acute kidney injury in ICU patients

Excerpt

In a multicenter prospective study including 1731 patients from 30 Chinese intensive care units (ICU), Zhang and colleagues [1] assessed the epidemiological characteristics and risk factors of postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI), and reported a high overall incidence of postoperative AKI (44.8%). By the multiple logistic regression analysis, moreover, they showed that cardiovascular surgery, emergency surgery, chronic kidney diseases, nephrotoxic drugs, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II scores, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment scores, positive fluid balance days, use of diuretics, and sepsis were the independent risk factors for the occurrence of postoperative AKI. Other than the limitations described by authors in discussion, we noticed several issues in their methods that would make the interpretation of their findings questionable. …