Monday May 14, 2007
Role of continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) in critical care setting still not clear

Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) in critically ill patients is sometimes associated with multi organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). Patients who require dialysis have mortality rate over 50%. CRRT instead of intermittent hemodialysis (IHD) is being used in several institutions in this setting. The critical care physicians and nursing staff now often manage CRRT, rather than the nephrologists and dialysis nurses. However there is no data to show that CRRT is superior to IHD in critically ill patients probably because these patients are sicker and are difficult to study 2, 3.


Previous related pearl: Is SLEDD better than CVVHD in ICU patients ?


References: click to get article / abstract

1. Continuous renal replacement in critical illness - Contrib Nephrol. 2007;156:309-19
2. Survival by dialysis modality in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury - J Am Soc Nephrol. 2006 Nov;17(11):3132-8. Epub 2006 Oct 4.
3. Renal replacement therapy for acute kidney injury: let's follow the evidence - Int J Artif Organs. 2007 Feb;30(2):89-94