We investigated 2007 patients over a period of 2 years. Of this group we found 25.9% of patients were over 70 years of age. Of the entire pool 97 patients had renal failure, forcing us to perform continuous venovenous hemofiltration (CVVH). Indications for doing CVVH were identical in young and old patients. Of the filtrated patients 29 died. Only 44.8% of the non-survivors belonged to the group of elderly patients. We conclude from our investigation that there is no indication that older patients have worse prognoses than younger patients in the case of renal failure.