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Epidemiologic Trend Changes in Acute Renal Failure—A Tertiary Center Experience from South India

Background. There are little data on the incidence of acute renal failure (ARF) from India due to the absence of central registry. The etiology, course, and outcome of ARF differ in various parts of India. Significant trend changes were reported even within a same center over a period of time. Aim. To find out the epidemiologic trend changes in ARF patients, the authors compared the profile of patients admitted by the Department of Nephrology from 1995–2004 with previously published data from 1987–1991. Methods. Data collected from case records of patients admitted with ARF were systemically analyzed for age, gender, etiology, course, and outcome. A total of 32 variables were collected per person retrospectively. The chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, and student t-test were used as tests of significance (p< 0.05 was taken as statistically significant). Results. A total of 1112 patients were diagnosed to have ARF from 1995–2004. The mean age was 37.08 ± 3.4 yrs. There were 669 (60.1%) males. Medical, obstetric, and surgical causes accounted for 87.6, 8.9, and 3.4 percent of ARF, respectively. Among the medical causes of ARF, acute diarrheal disease was the most common. Other causes of medical ARF included drugs, glomerulonephritis, sepsis, snake bite, leptospirosis, malaria, and copper sulphate, which accounted for 13.4, 9.3, 8.8, 7.8, 7.5, 4.4, and 4.3 percent, respectively. In comparison with the data from 1987–1991, medical ARF remained the most common cause of ARF, though without any statistical significance (87.6 percent vs 89.5 percent, p>0.32). Though surgical ARF had more than doubled from 1.5 percent from 1987–1991 to 3.4 percent (p<0.01) during the present study, it is much less when compared to similar studies in the literature. Obstetric renal failure more or less remained the same (8.9 percent vs 9 percent, p>0.4). A statistically significant decline was noted in overall as well as individual group mortality. The overall mortality declined from 26.4 percent to 19.6 percent (p<0.02). Regarding the outcome of ARF, 611 patients (54.94 percent) showed a total recovery, a partial recovery was noted in 192 patients (17.26 percent), and 91 patients (8.18 percent) had persistent dialysis-dependent renal failure. The factors noted to occur more frequently in the deceased were high entry serum creatinine (>440 μmol), jaundice, sepsis, oliguria, anemia, hypoalbuminemia, and hospital-acquired ARF. The overall requirement of dialysis was 69.0 percent. Hemodialysis was the most common modality of renal replacement therapy. Conclusions. ARF in South India differs in some important aspects when compared with data from other parts of the country. Significant trend changes were noted with time even within our center. Acute diarrheal disease was the most common cause of ARF. Leptospiral ARF was on the decline, and drugs, sepsis, and malaria were the emerging ARF causes. The incidence of surgical ARF was on the rise. Despite improvements in antenatal care, obstetric renal failure remained a significant cause of ARF. Hemodialysis became the preferred mode of renal replacement therapy.