Mortality and morbidity associated with new onset acute kidney injury in critically ill COVID-19 infection patients

Abstract

Abstract Background The recent global pandemic due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 resulted in a high rate of multi-organ failure and mortality in a large patient population across the world. As such, a possible correlation between acute kidney injury (AKI) and increased mortality rate in these patients has been suggested in literature. Methods This is a two-year retrospective study of critically ill adult patients infected with COVID-19 that were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) on ventilatory support. Two groups of patients were identified in this study, those who were directly admitted to the ICU or those who were initially admitted to the Medical Floor and were later transferred to the ICU due to either worsening respiratory status or change in their hemodynamic conditions. Within each group, three subgroups were created based on the status of AKI, namely, those who did not develop AKI, those who developed AKI, and those who with previous history of dialysis dependent AKI. Results The AKI subgroup had the highest mortality rate in the ICU and Floor patients. Of note, those patients who were directly admitted to the Floor and were later transferred to the ICU for worsening conditions also experienced a higher mortality rate if they had developed AKI during their course of hospital stay. Conclusions This study identified a statistically significant higher mortality in patients who developed AKI than those who did not develop AKI among critically ill patients. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov registration number NCT05964088. Date of registration: July 24 2023.