A narrative review of the impact of interventions in acute kidney injury

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is independently associated with significant morbidity and mortality, and is thus an important challenge facing physicians in modern healthcare. This narrative review assesses the impact of strategies employed to tackle AKI following the 2009 NCEPOD report on acute kidney injury (Sterwart et al. Acute kidney injury: adding insult to injury, pp 1–22, 2009). There is scarce and heterogeneous research into hard end points such as mortality and AKI progression for AKI interventions. This review found that e-alerts have varying effects on mortality and AKI progression, but decrease the incidence of contrast-induced AKI. The use of AKI bundles delivers statistically significant improvements in mortality and AKI progression. Similarly, AKI nurses generate statistically significant improvements on hospital acquired AKI and mortality. As yet there is no evidence base for the effects of education, sick day rules and smart phone apps. Overall, a combination of e-alerts and AKI bundles supported by education yielded the most effective and statistically significant results. Current practice revolves around reactive rather than preventative behaviour. This narrative review discusses reactive interventions and their impact on the progression and severity of AKI, and on mortality from it. Preventative behaviour, such as risk stratification and early intervention in the deteriorating patient, may be influential in decreasing AKI incidence.