Acute renal failure on the increase

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Although there are more cases of acute renal failure, at least mortality from the condition is down.
Acute renal failure (ARF) involves a sudden loss of kidney function and occurs for many different causes. Two new studies give a picture of ARF trends in the USA. The first, from the United States Renal Data System, shows that the incidence of ARF has been going up among the elderly by about 11 per cent a year between 1992 and 2001. Those with ARF has a 15 per cent mortality rate if this was the primary diagnosis. This is compared to an overall mortality of five per cent for patients diagnosed with other illnesses.

If patients have ARF as a secondary diagnosis - that is, they have other illnesses too - then the death rate is as high as 33 per cent. The second study, from Harvard Medical School confirms the upward trend in the incidence of ARF. However, it appears that the in-hospital mortality of ARF has actually gone down from 1988 to 2002, from 40 per cent to 20 per cent overall and from 41 per cent to 28 per cent in patients needing dialysis. This is probably because of improvements in cricital care, coupled with advances in dialysis technology. Despite improvements in survival, these studies show that ARF is becoming a significant health issue and it is important to find new ways of preventing and treating the condition.

Source
Journal of the American Society of Nephrology online 28th February 2006 (print version, April)

Please take a moment to give us your comments. For questions about Health matters you may check our "Questions & Answers" Portal and Service.