Post-partum acute kidney injury

To determine the risk factors, course of hospital stay and mortality rate among women with post-partum acute kidney injury (AKI), we studied (of 752 patients with AKI admitted to a tertiary care center during the study period between November 2009 and August 2012) 27 (3.59%) women with post-partum AKI. The data regarding age, parity, cause of renal failure, course of hospital stay and requirement of dialysis were recorded. Sepsis was the major cause (70.3%) of post-partum AKI. Other causes included disseminated intravascular coagulation (55.5%), pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (40.7%), ante- and post-partum hemorrhage (40.7% and 22.2%) and hemolytic anemia and elevated liver enzymes and low platelet count syndrome (29.6%); most patients had more than one cause of AKI. We found a very high prevalence (18.5%) of cortical necrosis in our study patients. A significant correlation was also found between the creatinine level on admission and the period of onset of disease after delivery. In conclusion, several factors are involved in causing post-partum AKI in our population, and sepsis was the most common of them.