Individualized acute kidney injury after care

Primary Care Providers Barriers, Comfort and Awareness in Follow-up Care of Acute Kidney Injury Patients: A Comprehensive Survey on Current Practices

Background

Patients who experienced acute kidney injury (AKI) may benefit from dedicated care following hospital discharge. Most of these patients will be followed by primary care providers. There is a lack of data on current practices and comfort for these care providers when offering post-AKI care.

Objective

We surveyed nurse practitioners and family physicians to assess their awareness, perceptions, practice patterns and comfort regarding post-AKI care.

Design/Setting

We distributed a web-based self-administered survey among clinicians from the Province of Quebec. We asked about their awareness and perceptions on how AKI should be disclosed and followed, the barriers encountered regarding the process of care following hospital discharge, and their level of comfort and expertise in offering dedicated post-AKI care. The survey integrated direct and scenario-based questions and was conducted from December 2022 to April 2023.

Participants

We distributed the survey to practicing family physicians and nurse practitioners through the mailing list of the Fédération des Médecins Omnipraticiens du Québec, and the Association des infirmières praticiennes spécialisées du Québec, respectively. No incentives were provided.

Methods

We conducted descriptive analyses and used chi-squared analysis to compare responses between family physicians and nurse practitioners and between hospital-based and cabinet-based practice.

Results

The survey was opened by 779 potential participants. Of these, the response rate was 9% (70/779). Most participants were family physicians (79%) and dedicated 70% (±32) of their time in community outpatient clinics. Participants reported that 59% (±20) of all patients seen daily had at least 1 risk factor for AKI, whereas they estimated that 21% (±12) of recently discharged patients suffered from an AKI episode. The lack of awareness by the patient and lack of details on the discharge summary were the barriers most frequently reported impacting the overall process of care at follow-up. Most nurse practitioners (60%) and 33% of family physicians reported at least some levels of discomfort and lack of expertise when offering post-AKI.

Limitations

The generalizability of our study is limited by its response rate. However, this is comparable with typical response rates seen in electronic surveys. The distribution was limited to a single province of Canada.

Conclusions

We reported significant barriers regarding the hospital-to-community transition of care in patients who experienced AKI and the suboptimal comfort and expertise of primary care providers when offering dedicated post-AKI care. This reflects the need to improve communication, collaboration, and AKI training with primary care providers.

Long-term outcomes in patients who received veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and renal replacement therapy: a retrospective cohort study

Background

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequent complication in patients with severe respiratory failure receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). However, little is known of long-term kidney function in ECMO survivors. We aimed to assess the long-term mortality and kidney outcomes in adult patients treated with veno-venous ECMO (VV-ECMO).

Methods

This was a single-centre retrospective study of adult patients (≥ 18 years old) who were treated with VV-ECMO at a commissioned ECMO centre in the UK between 1st September 2010, and 30th November 2016. AKI was defined and staged using the serum creatinine and urine output criteria of the Kidney Diseases: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) classification. The primary outcome was 1-year mortality. Secondary outcomes were long-term mortality (up to March 2020), 1-year incidence of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) or chronic kidney disease (CKD) among AKI patients who received renal replacement therapy (AKI-RRT), AKI patients who did not receive RRT (AKI-no RRT) and patients without AKI (non-AKI).

Results

A total of 300 patients [57% male; median age 44.5; interquartile range (IQR) 34–54] were included in the final analysis. Past medical histories included diabetes (12%), hypertension (17%), and CKD (2.3%). The main cause of severe respiratory failure was pulmonary infection (72%). AKI occurred in 230 patients (76.7%) and 59.3% received renal replacement therapy (RRT). One-year mortality was 32% in AKI-RRT patients vs. 21.4% in non-AKI patients (p = 0.014). The median follow-up time was 4.35 years. Patients who received RRT had a higher risk of 1-year mortality than those who did not receive RRT (adjusted HR 1.80, 95% CI 1.06, 3.06; p = 0.029). ESKD occurred in 3 patients, all of whom were in the AKI-RRT group. At 1-year, 41.2% of survivors had serum creatinine results available. Among these, CKD was prevalent in 33.3% of AKI-RRT patients vs. 4.3% in non-AKI patients (p = 0.004).

Conclusions

VV-EMCO patients with AKI-RRT had high long-term mortality. Monitoring of kidney function after hospital discharge was poor. In patients with follow-up creatinine results available, the CKD prevalence was high at 1 year, especially in AKI-RRT patients. More awareness about this serious long-term complication and appropriate follow-up interventions are required.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13613-022-01046-0.

Discharge Documentation and Follow-Up of Critically Ill Patients With Acute Kidney Injury Treated With Kidney Replacement Therapy: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Leading organisations recommend follow-up of acute kidney injury (AKI) survivors, as these patients are at risk of long-term complications and increased mortality. Information transfer between specialties and from tertiary to primary care is essential to ensure timely and appropriate follow-up. Our aim was to examine the association between completeness of discharge documentation and subsequent follow-up of AKI survivors who received kidney replacement therapy (KRT) in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). We retrospectively analysed the data of 433 patients who had KRT for AKI during ICU admission in a tertiary care centre in the UK between June 2017 and May 2018 and identified patients who were discharged from hospital alive. Patients with pre-existing end-stage kidney disease and patients who were transferred from hospitals outside the catchment area were excluded. The primary objective was to assess the completeness of discharge documentation from critical care and hospital; secondary objectives were to determine cardiovascular medications reconciliation after AKI, and to investigate kidney care and outcomes at 1 year. The development of AKI and the need for KRT were mentioned in 85 and 82% of critical care discharge letters, respectively. Monitoring of kidney function post-discharge was recommended in 51.6% of critical care and 36.3% of hospital discharge summaries. Among 35 patients who were prescribed renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors before hospitalisation, 15 (42.9%) were not re-started before discharge from hospital. At 3 months, creatinine and urine protein were measured in 88.2 and 11.8% of survivors, respectively. The prevalence of chronic kidney disease stage III or worse increased from 27.2% pre-hospitalisation to 54.9% at 1 year (p < 0.001). Our data demonstrate that discharge summaries of patients with AKI who received KRT lacked essential information. Furthermore, even in patients with appropriate documentation, renal follow-up was poor suggesting the need for more education and streamlined care pathways.

Timing of Kidney Support Therapy in Acute Kidney Injury: What Are We Waiting For?

The optimal timing of kidney support therapy in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) without life-threatening complications related to AKI is controversial. Recent multicenter, randomized, controlled studies have questioned the need for earlier initiation of therapy, despite one study showing a benefit in survival and others with no differences in mortality based on the timing of kidney support therapy initiation. These findings reflect the uncertainties in decisions to initiate kidney support therapy, which should ideally be individualized according to the patient's comorbidities, severity of illness, trajectory of kidney function, and urine output as well as requirements for fluid balance and solute removal. A delayed approach could translate into a potentially reduced burden of dialysis dependence in addition to saving health resources. However, we must ascertain what constitutes the waiting period and the benefits and risks associated with this approach. This article reviews the concept of timing of dialysis in AKI, performs a critical assessment of the most important clinical trials in this topic, discusses ongoing research and knowledge gaps, and defines key research issues to address in the future.

Long-term kidney function of patients discharged from hospital after an intensive care admission: observational cohort study

The long-term trajectory of kidney function recovery or decline for survivors of critical illness is incompletely understood. Characterising changes in kidney function after critical illness and associated episodes of acute kidney injury (AKI), could inform strategies to monitor and treat new or progressive chronic kidney disease. We assessed changes in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and impact of AKI for 1301 critical care survivors with 5291 eGFR measurements (median 3 [IQR 2, 5] per patient) between hospital discharge (2004-2008) and end of 7 years of follow-up. Linear mixed effects models showed initial decline in eGFR over the first 6 months was greatest in patients without AKI (- 9.5%, 95% CI - 11.5% to - 7.4%) and with mild AKI (- 12.3%, CI - 15.1% to - 9.4%) and least in patients with moderate-severe AKI (- 4.3%, CI - 7.0% to - 1.4%). However, compared to patients without AKI, hospital discharge eGFR was lowest for the moderate-severe AKI group (median 61 [37, 96] vs 101 [78, 120] ml/min/1.73m2) and two thirds (66.5%, CI 59.8-72.6% vs 9.2%, CI 6.8-12.4%) had an eGFR of < 60 ml/min/1.73m2 through to 7 years after discharge. Kidney function trajectory after critical care discharge follows a distinctive pattern of initial drop then sustained decline. Regardless of AKI severity, this evidence suggests follow-up should incorporate monitoring of eGFR in the early months after hospital discharge.