Comparison of Standard Conservative Treatment and Early Initiation of Renal Replacement Therapy in Pregnancy-related Acute Kidney Injury: A Single-center Prospective Study

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Pregnancy-related acute kidney injury (PRAKI) is one of the most important cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Some of the reasons behind PRAKI may be due to sepsis, postpartum hemorrhage, preeclampsia, thrombotic microangiopathies (TMA), and acute fatty liver of pregnancy (AFLP). The timing of initiation of renal replacement therapy (RRT) for better patient outcome is still debatable. We conducted this study to establish whether earlier initiation of RRT in PRAKI improves fetomaternal survival compared to a more conservative approach. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a prospective study, where patients were screened at a multispecialty tertiary care hospital in north India for 1 year. The patients were divided into two groups: early RRT and standard AKI treatment. The demographic profile and clinical characteristics of the patients in terms of age, parity access to antenatal care, fetal outcome, urine output, hematological and biochemical profiles, RRT, duration of hospitalization, recovery of renal function, and patients survival were recorded. RESULTS: This prospective study conducted included 13 patients in the early RRT group and 23 patients in the standard group. Considering the fetal outcome, the number of fetal deaths in early RRT group were 14.29%, whereas for the standard group it was 85.71%. In all, 75% of early RRT group and 25% of standard group had normal term delivery. Probability test applied showed they were statistically significant. One maternal mortality was there in the standard group. The indices of maternal outcome in PRAKI patients were found to be statistically insignificant. CONCLUSION: The planning of RRT whether early or late does not make a difference in maternal mortality or morbidity. The fetal outcome is significantly better for patients with early RRT than conservative treatment in PRAKI. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Banerjee A, Mehrotra G. Comparison of Standard Conservative Treatment and Early Initiation of Renal Replacement Therapy in Pregnancy-related Acute Kidney Injury: A Single-center Prospective Study. Indian J Crit Care Med 2020;24(8):688–694.