Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs in up to 30% of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patients and is associated with a high mortality rate.
Objectives: The objective of the study was to evaluate factors associated with the outcome and to identify the prognostic factors in children receiving continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT).
Material and methods: This was a retrospective, single-center study, including 46 patients.
Results: Logistic regression analysis demonstrated significant effects on patient survival exerted by the percentage of fluid overload (FO%) (odds ratio (OR): 1.030; p = 0.044). In the group of patients with FO% < 25%, the mortality was 33.3%, and in the FO% ≥ 25% group, the mortality was 67.9% (p < 0.001). The probability of death without multi-organ failure (MOF) was 13%, while with MOF it was 74%. There was no difference in the duration of hospitalization between the CRRT patients (mean: 21.9 days) and the general population of children hospitalized in PICU in the same period (n = 3,255; mean: 25.4 days); however, a significant difference was noted in mortality between the 2 groups of patients (54% vs 6.5%; p < 0.001).
Conclusions: The mortality of PICU CRRT patients is more than 8-fold higher than the mortality of the total PICU population. Coexisting MOF increases the mortality almost 6 times. The mortality of children with FO% ≥ 25% was more than 2-fold higher than the mortality of children with FO% < 25%.
Keywords: acute kidney injury; anticoagulation; continuous renal replacement therapy; pediatric intensive care unit; survival.