Short, and long-term mortality among cardiac intensive care unit patients started on continuous renal replacement therapy

This article by Keleshian and others was published online in the Journal of Critical Care during November 2019.
Purpose:  Patients requiring continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) are at high risk of death. Predictors of hospital mortality and post-discharge survival in cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) patients requiring CRRT have not been reported.
Materials and methods:  Retrospective review of 198 CICU patients undergoing CRRT from 2006 to 2015. Multivariable regression identified predictors of hospital mortality and Cox proportional-hazards identified predictors of post-discharge mortality among hospital survivors.
Results:  The indication for CRRT was volume overload in 129 (65%) and metabolic abnormalities in 76 (38%). 105 (53%) subjects died in hospital, with 22% dialysis-free hospital survival. Cardiogenic shock was present in 159 (80%) subjects; 150 (76%) subjects received vasopressors and 101 (51%) subjects required mechanical ventilation. Hospital mortality was similar in cardiogenic and non-cardiogenic causes of CICU admission. Predictors of hospital death included semi-quantitative RV function, Braden score, VIS, and PaO2/FIO2 ratio. Median post-discharge Kaplan-Meier survival was 1.9 years. Predictors of post-hospital death included age, VIS, diabetes, Braden score, semi-quantitative RV function, prior heart failure, and dialysis dependence. The indication for CRRT was not predictive of survival.
Conclusion:  Mortality is high among CICU patients requiring CRRT, and is predicted by the Braden score, RV dysfunction, respiratory failure and vasopressor load.
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Early mobilisation in intensive care during renal replacement therapy: A quality improvement project

This article by Ragland and others was published online during January 2019 in “Intensive and Critical Care Nursing”.
Objective:  To improve mobility for patients undergoing renal replacement therapy within intensive care.
Design:  A quality improvement study utilising a step-wise mobility protocol within a before-and-after audit design.
Setting:  Twenty-four bed Trauma/Surgical intensive care unit within a level one trauma and academic centre.
Main outcome:  Improvement of compliance to the mobility plan following introduction of a step-wise mobility protocol.
Results:  A total of fifty-six renal replacement therapy patients were measured on a randomly selected day each week during the nine month before-and-after protocol audit period. Before introducing the protocol, compliance to mobility was 12.5%, compared to 62.5% after the protocol was introduced. There were no identified negative outcomes, such as catheter loss, filter loss or bleeding, associated with mobilising these patients following implementation of the protocol.
Conclusion:  The use of a step-wise mobility protocol was effective and safe strategy to increase mobility in the renal replacement therapy patient population.
Subscribers to Intensive and Critical Care Nursing can access the full text of the article via this link.  The full text of articles from issues older than sixty days is available via this link to an archive of issues of Intensive and Critical Care Nursing.  A Rotherham NHS Athens password is required.  Eligible staff can register for an Athens password via this link.  Please speak to the library staff for more details.

Timing of Renal-Replacement Therapy in Patients with Acute Kidney Injury and Sepsis

This article by the IDEAL-ICU Trial Investigators and the CRICS TRIGGERSEP Network was published in the New England journal of medicine in October 2018.
Background:  Acute kidney injury is the most frequent complication in patients with septic shock and is an independent risk factor for death. Although renal-replacement therapy is the standard of care for severe acute kidney injury, the ideal time for initiation remains controversial.
Methods:  In a multicentre, randomized, controlled trial, we assigned patients with early-stage septic shock who had severe acute kidney injury at the failure stage of the risk, injury, failure, loss, and end-stage kidney disease (RIFLE) classification system but without life-threatening complications related to acute kidney injury to receive renal-replacement therapy either within 12 hours after documentation of failure-stage acute kidney injury (early strategy) or after a delay of 48 hours if renal recovery had not occurred (delayed strategy). The failure stage of the RIFLE classification system is characterized by a serum creatinine level 3 times the baseline level (or ≥4 mg per deciliter with a rapid increase of ≥0.5 mg per deciliter), urine output less than 0.3 ml per kilogram of body weight per hour for 24 hours or longer, or anuria for at least 12 hours. The primary outcome was death at 90 days.
Results:  The trial was stopped early for futility after the second planned interim analysis. A total of 488 patients underwent randomization; there were no significant between-group differences in the characteristics at baseline. Among the 477 patients for whom follow-up data at 90 days were available, 58% of the patients in the early-strategy group (138 of 239 patients) and 54% in the delayed-strategy group (128 of 238 patients) had died (P=0.38). In the delayed-strategy group, 38% (93 patients) did not receive renal-replacement therapy. Criteria for emergency renal-replacement therapy were met in 17% of the patients in the delayed-strategy group (41 patients).
Conclusions:  Among patients with septic shock who had severe acute kidney injury, there was no significant difference in overall mortality at 90 days between patients who were assigned to an early strategy for the initiation of renal-replacement therapy and those who were assigned to a delayed strategy.
The printed copy of the New England Journal of Medicine is available in the Health Care Library on D Level of Rotherham Hospital.