AKI Requiring Hemodialysis in Patients with COVID-19

Kidney Week 2020

Worldwide, mortality rates associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vary. Patients with multiorgan injury, frequently associated with acute kidney injury (AKI), are at risk for adverse outcomes. Suresh Sankarasubbaiyan, MBBS, and colleagues at NephroPlus (Hyerabad, Telengana, India) conducted an analysis of data on patients with AKI who required hemodialysis in the context of COVID-19 infection.

The researchers reported results of the analysis during a virtual poster session at ASN Kidney Week 2020. The poster was titled Characteristics and Outcome of AKI Needing Dialysis with COVID-19 Infection.

The analysis cohort included consecutive patients from March 15 to May 25, 2020, with AKI associated with COVID-19 infection needing hemodialysis. The analysis included data on patient age, sex, payer type, days from admission to initiation of hemodialysis, urine output, serum creatinine, comorbidities, other organ injuries, length of stay and outcomes. Dialysis session details, including blood flow rate (BFR), dialysis flow rate (DFR), and ultrafiltration volume were also reviewed. Comparisons of survivors and nonsurvivors utilized the Mann Whitney/Wilcoxon 2 sample test for medians and the Fisher exact 2 test for association.

Of the 20 patients in the cohort, mean age was 56.7 years, and the majority were male. A total of 11 patients died. The cohort underwent 51 hemodialysis sessions; four patients required continuous renal replacement therapy.

“AKI needing hemodialysis in COVID-19 infection is associated with significant multiorgan injury and high mortality; middle-aged males predominate. No significant clinical characteristics were predictive of survival in a [small] sample size,” the researchers said.

Source: Sankarasubbaiyan S, Gowda MGB, Ganapathi S, et al. Characteristics and outcome of AKI needing dialysis with COVID-19 infection. Abstract of a poster presented at the American Society of Nephrology virtual Kidney Week 2020 (Abstract PO0685), October 22, 2020.