Clinical Outcomes of Dialysis-Treated Acute Kidney Injury Patients at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

Background. Acute kidney injury in adults is a common cause of hospitalization, associated with high morbidity and mortality especially in developing countries. In spite of RRT the in-hospital mortality rates remain high even in the developed countries. Though a proportion of our patients receive renal replacement therapy as part of their management, data on outcomes are sparse. Study Objective. To determine the clinical outcomes of dialysis-treated AKI in our hospital. Methods. A retrospective analysis of the clinical data of all adult AKI patients treated with haemodialysis at the University of Teaching Hospital during an interrupted six-year period was conducted. Analysis was done using SPSS version 17.0. Results. 34 males and 28 females with mean age of 41.3 ± 18.5 years were studied. The leading causes of AKI were sepsis (22.7%), acute glomerulonephritis (20.5%), acute gastroenteritis (15.9%), and toxic nephropathies (11.4%) and presented with mean e-GFR of 14.7 ± 5.8 mls/min/1.73 m(2). Of the 62 patients, 29 (46.8%) were discharged from the hospital, 27 (43.5%) died in hospital, while 6 (9.7%) absconded from treatment. Survivors had better Rifle grade than those who died (P < 0.001). Conclusion. Hospital mortality rate of dialysis-treated AKI patients is high and the severity of renal damage at presentation may be an important factor.