Kidney Trouble Raises In-Hospital Death Risk

Injury to this organ can also boost treatment costs, study finds

FRIDAY, Oct. 7, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- Even minor kidney injury increases the risk of death for hospitalized patients, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco analyzed data from 9,210 hospital patients who had undergone blood tests measuring a protein called creatine -- a standard means of assessing kidney function. Increases in blood creatine are a sign of acute kidney injury.

One percent of the patients had major increases in serum creatine, indicating major organ injury, while another 13 percent had modest serum creatine increases, a sign of more minor injury to the kidneys. Older and sicker patients were more likely to have both major and modest kidney injury, as were patients with initially low kidney function.

Patients with acute kidney injury were at greater risk of dying in the hospital than other patients, the researchers report in the November issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. The higher the serum creatine increase, the greater the risk of death, the study found. Even patients with the mildest category of kidney injury faced a 6.5 times greater risk of dying in a hospital, compared to patients with no signs of trouble.

Patients with acute kidney injury also spent an average of 3.5 more days in a hospital than other patients and had higher hospital costs -- an average of $7,500. The study authors estimate that acute kidney injury may account for excess hospital costs of more than $10 billion a year in the United States.

More information

The U.S. National Kidney Disease Education Program has more about kidney disease.

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