McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine
affiliated faculty member John Kellum, MD, FACP, FCCM (pictured), professor of critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, is the co-chair of Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO), an international program of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF). As reported by Kate Johnson, Medscape Medical News, nephrologists got a sneak peak at the first-ever clinical practice guidelines on acute kidney injury, announced at the NKF's 2011 Spring Clinical Meetings.
The guidelines were developed by KDIGO and should be published this summer. They are a push toward increasing awareness about the prevention, recognition, and management of acute kidney injury (AKI), said Dr. Kellum.
"AKI is a prevalent problem. Upwards of two thirds of ICU [intensive care unit] patients and as many as 20% of all hospitalized patients develop acute kidney injury, so it’s a massive issue," he told Medscape Medical News. "It’s really not been well appreciated that even mild injury, resulting in small changes in renal function acutely, can have significant short-term and long-term consequences," he explained.
According to KDIGO, research in the past 10 years has identified preventable risk factors and improvements in AKI management, "which are not widely known and invariably practiced worldwide, resulting in lost opportunities to improve the care and outcomes of patients with AKI."
The guidelines, which should be published this summer, are aimed at "frontline physicians" and cover everything from defining and diagnosing AKI, the recognition and modification of risk factors, and treatment and follow-up, said Dr. Kellum.
"These guidelines recognize that frontline physicians — not just nephrologists, or intensivists — but emergency room physicians, family practitioners, general internists, radiologists, cardiologists — all the sorts of people that are likely to see these patients early on — really need to be aware of the kinds of things that lead to acute kidney injury and what kinds of things can be done about it."
Illustration: McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
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Medscape (04/29/11, must register to view)
Bio: Dr. John Kellum