Contributions to nephrology
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The term pre-renal azotemia (or on occasion 'pre-renal renal failure') is frequently used in textbooks and in the literature to indicate an acute syndrome characterized by the presence of an increase in the blood concentration of nitrogen waste products (urea and creatinine). This syndrome is assumed to be due to loss of glomerular filtration rate but is not considered to be associated with histopathological renal injury. Thus, the term is used to differentiate 'functional' from 'structural' acute kidney injury (AKI) where structural renal injury is taken to indicate the presence of so-called acute tubular necrosis (ATN). ⋯ In such patients, several assumptions associated with the 'pre-renal azotemia paradigm' are violated. In particular, there is no evidence that ATN is the histopathological substrate of septic AKI, there is no evidence that urine tests can discriminate 'functional' from 'structural' AKI, there is no evidence that any proposed differentiation leads or should lead to different treatments, and there is no evidence that relevant experimentation can resolve these uncertainties. Given that septic AKI of critical illness now accounts for close to 50% of cases of severe AKI in developed countries, these observations call into question the validity and usefulness of the 'pre-renal azotemia paradigm' in AKI in general.
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Sustained low-efficiency dialysis (SLED) is an increasingly popular form of renal replacement therapy for patients with renal failure in the intensive care unit. Advantages of SLED are efficient clearance of small solutes, good hemodynamic tolerability, flexible treatment schedules, and reduced costs. Studies comparing outcomes of SLED with those of other dialysis modalities are being performed.
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Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common and serious postoperative complication following exposure to cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Several mechanisms have been proposed by which the kidney can be damaged and interventional studies addressing known targets of renal injury have been undertaken in an attempt to prevent or attenuate CPB-associated AKI. However, no definitive strategy appears to protect a broad heterogeneous population of cardiac surgery patients from CPB-associated AKI. ⋯ Sodium bicarbonate is safe, simple to administer and inexpensive. If part of AKI after CPB is truly secondary to hemoglobin-induced pigment nephropathy, prophylactic sodium bicarbonate infusion might help attenuate it. A trial of such treatment might be a reasonable future investigation in higher risk patients receiving CPB.
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The practice of renal replacement therapy (RRT) has reached an optimal standard of care worldwide. Nevertheless, some aspects of acute renal failure treatment and support still present wide variability between different centers. This is especially true for the mode and dose of RRT. This review describes the epidemiology of dialysis prescription and delivery around the world based on recent observational studies and international surveys. ⋯ A trend to continuous therapies and increased RRT dosage over the last 10 years is shown by the surveys presented, even if scientific evidence is now very necessary as far as definitive RRT indications and prescriptions are concerned.
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Implementing continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) in a intensive care unit (ICU) is a somewhat difficult issue and quiet different from starting a new ventilation mode or a new hemodynamic device. It may indeed require an on-call medical emergency CRRT team as expertise in this field is really a key issue to success. Education for the nursing team is another key point, especially as ongoing or continuous education is changing very quickly. ⋯ Therefore, a nursing group composed of 5-8 nurses who would be taught beforehand was started, and this dedicated group would then teach the rest CRRT Technology and Logistics 355 of the staff nurses. This group exists today and has at least 6-8 meetings/year in which all the problems that must be faced in the implementation of CRRT are dealt with. Here all the steps made by our and other units in this field will be discussed, including an overview of the various protocols implemented and a description of our dedicated nursing group with regard to CRRT.