Trends and outcomes of chronic kidney disease in intensive care: a 5-year study

The prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasing in Australia and is independently associated with a higher risk of hospitalisation and death. Australian data may be useful in guiding improved hospital management of this growing cohort of patients.

To assess and compare the trends and outcomes of CKD patients requiring hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) admission at a tertiary referral hospital and state public hospitals.

We conducted a retrospective analysis of all acute care admissions to St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne and all Victorian public hospitals using the Victorian Admitted Episodes Data Set (VAED) for the years 2010-2014 to determine CKD prevalence, demographic and outcome associations. The Elixhauser ICD-10 comorbidity classification of renal failure was used to identify CKD (ElixRF). Chi-squared test, Kruskal-Wallis test and logistic regression were used for analysis.

A total of 101 817 patients was included from our institution, with 6.4% classified as having ElixRF. ELixRF increased from 5.2% in 2010 to 8.6% in 2014 for all hospital admissions and from 8.3% to 13.3% for ICU admissions. ElixRF was associated with longer hospital and ICU length of stay, male gender, older age, higher comorbidity and independently with increased mortality. The VAED contained 2 044 507 episodes for the same period with similar trends and associations.

CKD prevalence amongst patients admitted to hospital and ICU is increasing and is associated with worse outcomes. ElixRF may be a useful administrative flag for nephrologist involvement in care and for prompting consideration of advanced care planning.