[Acute kidney injury and septic shock: experiences in treatment]

Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs in 5-45% of critically ill patients, and renal replacement therapy (RRT) is required in 4-10% of patients with AKI. AKI has long been considered to be hemodynamic damage from low blood flow resulting in shock, and efforts have been made to prevent and cure it by increasing the renal blood flow and improving the cardiac output and perfusion pressure. In recent years, new experimental studies on patients with septic AKI have shown that the renal blood flow remains unaltered or even increases in septic shock. An important mechanism in the pathophysiology of sepsis and septic shock appears to be apoptosis rather than ischemic necrosis. The type of treatment as well as the dose and timing of initiation of RRT seem to have strategic importance in the recovery of AKI in patients admitted to the ICU. In critically ill (often postsurgical and septic) patients with acute renal failure the use of new anticoagulation strategies has permitted to perform treatments for a sufficient number of hours to achieve the correct level of purification by minimizing the downtime and the bleeding risk. In our center the use of protocols for different methods and different types of anticoagulants has simplified the treatment of all patients with AKI and septic shock admitted to the ICU.