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Internal medicine journal · Jan 2022
Practice patterns and predictors of outpatient care following acute kidney injury in an Australian healthcare setting.
- Emily J See, David G Ransley, Kevan R Polkinghorne, Nigel D Toussaint, Michael Bailey, David W Johnson, Ray Robbins, and Rinaldo Bellomo.
- Department of Intensive Care, Austin Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
- Intern Med J. 2022 Jan 1; 52 (1): 79-88.
BackgroundSurvivors of acute kidney injury (AKI) are at increased risk of major adverse kidney events and international guidelines recommend individuals be evaluated 3 months following AKI.AimWe describe practice patterns and predictors of post-AKI care in an Australian tertiary hospital.MethodsA retrospective analysis was undertaken of adults with AKI (defined by KDIGO criteria) admitted to a single centre between 2012 and 2016. The primary outcome was outpatient nephrology review at 3 months. Secondary outcomes included inpatient nephrology review, and outpatient serum creatinine and urinary protein measurements. Data were analysed using multivariable logistic and competing risk regression.ResultsOnly 117 of 2111 (6%) patients with AKI were reviewed by a nephrologist at 3 months. Reviewed patients were more likely to have a higher discharge serum creatinine (odds ratio (OR) 1.20 per 10 μmol/L increase; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.16-1.25) or a history of peripheral vascular disease (OR 1.77; 95% CI 1.00-3.14). They were less likely to be older (OR 0.66 per decade; 95% CI 0.57-0.76) or to have a history of liver (OR 0.47; 95% CI 0.26-0.87) or ischaemic heart (OR 0.50; 95% CI 0.27-0.94) disease. AKI stage did not predict follow up. The median time from discharge to outpatient serum creatinine testing was 12 days (interquartile range 4-47) and proteinuria was measured in 538 (25%) patients.ConclusionsA minority of admitted AKI patients receive recommended post-AKI care. Studies in other Australian institutions are required to confirm or refute these concerning findings.© 2020 Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
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