Long-term interplay between COVID-19 and chronic kidney disease

The COVID-19 pandemic may have an impact on the long-term kidney function of survivors. The clinical relevance is not clear.

This review summarises the currently published data.

There is a bidirectional relationship between chronic kidney disease and COVID-19 disease. Chronic kidney diseases due to primary kidney disease or chronic conditions affecting kidneys increase the susceptibility to COVID-19 infection, the risks for progression and critical COVID-19 disease (with acute or acute-on-chronic kidney damage), and death. Patients who have survived COVID-19 face an increased risk of worse kidney outcomes in the post-acute phase of the disease. Of clinical significance, COVID-19 may predispose surviving patients to chronic kidney disease, independently of clinically apparent acute kidney injury (AKI). The increased risk of post-acute renal dysfunction of COVID-19 patients can be graded according to the severity of the acute infection (non-hospitalised, hospitalised or ICU patients). The burden of chronic kidney disease developing after COVID-19 is currently unknown.

Post-acute COVID-19 care should include close attention to kidney function. Future prospective large-scale studies are needed with long and complete follow-up periods, assessing kidney function using novel markers of kidney function/damage, urinalysis and biopsy studies.