Acute kidney injury in patients admitted to Intensive Care Units

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the prevalence and factors associated with Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) in patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a general hospital in southwestern Bahia. Method: This is a cross-sectional, retrospective and quantitative study of 304 medical records of patients admitted to the ICU between June and September 2024. The data collected included sociodemographic, admission and clinical variables. The Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test and the Student's t-test were used to identify differences in the proportions of variables. Results: the occurrence of AKI was 8.2% (n=25), with the majority of individuals being male (76%) and smokers (28% vs. 10.1%; p=0.016). With regard to clinical conditions and hospitalization complications, patients with AKI stayed in the ICU for longer (11 ± 11 vs. 7 ± 9 days; p=0.040), had a greater demand for invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) (80.0% vs. 51.6%; p=0.005) and a greater need for vasoactive drugs (76.0% vs. 48.7%; p=0.007). In addition, there was a higher prevalence of pressure injuries (44.0% vs. 13.3%; p<0.0001), sepsis (32.0% vs. 7.9%; p=0.001) and cardiac arrest (36.0% vs. 12.2%; p=0.004). Death was more frequent among patients with AKI (52.0% vs. 24.4%; p=0.005). Conclusion: The results indicate that AKI is a significant problem in ICUs and is influenced by smoking, IMV, vasoactive drug use, sedation, LPP, sepsis and CA. Patients with AKI stayed longer in the ICU and had a higher mortality rate.

Keywords: Acute Kidney Injury; Intensive Care Units; Prevalence; Risk Factors.