<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">According to a study, patients with acute kidney damage who need outpatient dialysis after leaving the hospital receive the same care as patients with the more prevalent end-stage kidney disease.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, some patients on dialysis for acute kidney injury have the potential to recover. Patients with the latter diagnosis, which is typically brought on by long-standing hypertension or diabetes, must remain on lifelong dialysis or receive a new kidney.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The study was published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“For those who have the potential to recover, remaining on dialysis may place them at unnecessary risk for heart disease, infection, organ damage and death,” said first author Ian E. McCoy, MD, of the UCSF Division of Nephrology.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Less than a quarter of patients in a typical midsize dialysis centre have acute kidney injury. It may result from acute infection or shock, causing reduced blood flow to the kidneys, as well as major surgeries and chemotherapy agents that are toxic to the kidneys.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the study, researchers tracked data from 1,754 patients with acute kidney injury and 6,197 patients with end-stage kidney disease at outpatient dialysis centres. Although lab tests suggested acute kidney injury patients needed less dialysis, the two groups were treated largely the same. Both were started on thrice-weekly dialysis, and the large majority of patients in both groups were not tested for kidney functioning in the first month of treatment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Among the acute kidney injury patients, 10% died during the three-month study period – most likely from the conditions that prompted dialysis, according to the researchers. Of the 41% of patients who recovered kidney function, approximately three-quarters had discontinued dialysis without any changes to the dose, frequency and duration. This suggests that these patients could have been weaned at an earlier point, the researchers noted. HT</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>