Pregnancy outcomes in patients with acute kidney injury during pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Presently, the matter of pregnancy outcomes of patients with pregnancy related AKI (PR-AKI) were disputed. Thus, we conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the impact of PR-AKI on pregnancy outcomes.

We systematically searched MEDLINE, Embase, VIP, CNKI and Wanfang Databases for cohort or case-control studies in women with PR-AKI and those without AKI as a control group to assess the influence of PR-AKI on pregnancy outcomes and kidney outcome. Reduction of odd ratio (OR) was calculated by a random-effects model.

One thousand one hundred fifty two articles were systematically reviewed, of those 11 studies were included, providing data of 845 pregnancies in 834 women with PR-AKI and 5387 pregnancies in 5334 women without AKI. In terms of maternal outcomes, women with PR-AKI had a greater likelihood of cesarean delivery (OR, 1.49; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.37 to 1.61), hemorrhage (1.26; 1.02 to 1.56), HELLP syndrome (1.86; 1.41 to 2.46), placental abruption (3.13; 1.96 to 5.02), DIC (3.41; 2.00 to 5.84), maternal death (4.50; 2.73 to 7.43), but had a lower risk of eclampsia (0.53; 0.34 to 0.83). Women with PR-AKI also had a longer stay in ICU (weighted mean difference, 2.13 day [95% CI 1.43 to 2.83 day]) compared with those without PR-AKI. As for fetal outcomes, higher incidence of stillbirth/perinatal death (3.39, 2.76 to 4.18), lower mean gestational age at delivery (-0.70 week [95% CI -1.21 to -0.19 week]) and lower birth weight (-740 g [95% CI -1180 to 310 g]) were observed in women with PR-AKI. The occurrence of kidney outcome, defined as ESRD requiring dialysis, in women with PR-AKI was 2.4% (95% CI 1.3% to 4.2%).

PR-AKI remains a grave complication and has been associated with increased maternal and fetal mortality.