Acute renal failure in the same hospital ten years apart

A three month prospective study was carried out in 1994 (8/3/94 - 7/6/94) and late 2004/early 2005 (24/11/2004 - 15/2/2005) among patients with acute renal failure (ARF) (serum creatinine > 0.200 mmol/1). Incidence of ARF had increased from 0.48% (78/16,418) to 1.1% (211/18,697) of admissions between 1994 and 2004. Two thirds of patients were male. Mean age was 57.7 +/- 20.1 years in 1994 and 55.6 +/- 17.8 years in 2004. No difference was noted in causative factors, rate of oliguric ARF (about 10%) and mean peak urea and creatinine. The cause was pre-renal failure in 43.6% in 1994 and 53.5% in 2004. The second commonest cause was sepsis with 41% in 1994 and 37.9% in 2004. One in six patients needed dialysis and peritoneal dialysis was the main dialysis modality (69.2% and 74.3%). Mortality was 56.4% in 1994 and 44.5% in 2004. A quarter of deaths occurred within two days of admission due to severe underlying illness. Mortality among non-oliguric patients decreased from 52.9% in 1994 to 37.0% in 2004 (p = 0.04); for patients from intensive care units it was 78.3% in 1994 and 68.5% in 2004.