Introduction: Acute renal failure is characterised by abrupt and sustained decline in glomerular filtration rate, which leads to accumulation of urea and other chemicals in the blood. The term acute kidney injury has been introduced to encompass a wide spectrum of acute alterations in kidney function from mild to severe. Acute kidney injury is classified according to the RIFLE criteria, in which a change from baseline serum creatinine or urine output determines the level of renal dysfunction.
Methods and outcomes: We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of interventions to prevent acute kidney injury in people at high risk? What are the effects of treatments for critically ill people with acute kidney injury? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to December 2009 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically, please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Results: We found 82 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.
Conclusions: In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: albumin supplementation plus loop diuretics (intravenous), aminoglycosides, aminophylline, amphotericin B, calcium channel blockers, contrast media, dialysis membranes, dopamine, early versus late dialysis, extended daily dialysis, fenoldopam, loop diuretics, mannitol, N-acetylcysteine, natriuretic peptides, renal replacement therapy, sodium bicarbonate-based fluids, sodium chloride-based fluids, and theophylline.