Acute kidney injury in children : a study of etiology, clinical profile, and short-term outcomes at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract EN

A major hindrance in programs designed to reduce deaths from acute kidney injury (AKI) is that the extent and nature of AKI are often unknown.

This article reports the etiology, clinical profile, and short-term outcomes of children managed for AKI at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Abuja, Nigeria.

Children aged one month to 15 years managed for AKI (identified by pediatric RIFLE criteria) from January 2017 to December 2017 were followed up for a short period of four weeks following the AKI.

Multivariate Cox regression model was used to analyze the predictors of mortality.

An annual prevalence of 26 AKI cases per 1000 children was recorded with 43 AKI cases from 1634 children seen during the 12-month period.

The median age was 48 months.

Twenty-two were males (51.2%).

Sepsis (20, 46.6%), acute glomerulonephritis (5, 11.6%), diarrheal dehydration (5, 11.6%), severe falciparum malaria (4, 9.3%), and hemolytic- uremic syndrome (4, 9.3%) were the major causes of the AKI.

Fourteen children were managed conservatively, while 29 children that required dialysis had access to it.

Thirteen children died (percentage mortality of 30.2%).

The hazard of dying was eight times more in male gender [95% confidence interval (CI); 1.03–72.9, P = 0.017] and was lower in children without pulmonary edema by 0.14 (95% CI; 0.03–0.63, P = 0.01).

In our setting, mortality from AKI is still high, and male children and those with pulmonary edema should be closely managed for AKI to reduce this high mortality.