Severity and lenght of hospitalization of non-critical patients with acute kidney injury

Abstract

Objective: To assess severity and length of hospitalization of non-critical patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). Methods: Prospective observational study conducted with 137 patients, with data collected by a structured questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using chi-square, Fisher’s exact and Mann-Whitney tests, with significance set as p≤0.05. The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee. Results: Oxygen therapy by macro-nebulization resulted in higher mortality during hospitalization (p=0.001) and after discharge (p=0.02), as well as high levels of sodium (p=0.0001 vs. p=0.005) and the occurrence of kidney injury or failure (p=0.02 vs. p=0.02). Need for ventilatory support increased by 3.02 times the length of hospitalization (p=0.02). Conclusion: Acute kidney injury was frequent in more than half of the patients, with KDIGO 2 and 3 levels of severity that were associated with inpatient and post-discharge mortality. Most severe patients (KDIGO 3) remained hospitalized for a longer time. Macro-nebulization in patients with tracheostomy tripled the length of hospitalization.