Kidney international
-
Kidney international · Oct 2011
Multicenter StudyOliguria is an early predictor of higher mortality in critically ill patients.
Oliguria is a valuable marker of kidney function and a criterion for diagnosing and staging acute kidney injury (AKI). However, the utility of urine output as a specific metric for renal dysfunction is somewhat controversial. To study this issue further we tested whether urine output is a sensitive, specific, and early measure for diagnosing and staging AKI in 317 critically ill patients in a prospective observational study. ⋯ The diagnosis of AKI occurred earlier in oliguric than in non-oliguric patients. Oliguria of more than 12 h and oliguria of 3 or more episodes were associated with an increased mortality rate. Thus, urine output is a sensitive and early marker for AKI and is associated with adverse outcomes in intensive care unit patients.