BackgroundThe previously published “Dose Response Multicentre International Collaborative Initiative (DoReMi)” study concluded that the high mortality of critically ill patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) was unlikely to be related to an inadequate dose of renal replacement therapy (RRT) and other factors were contributing. This follow-up study aimed to investigate the impact of daily fluid balance and fluid accumulation on mortality of critically ill patients without AKI (N-AKI), with AKI (AKI) and with AKI on RRT (AKI-RRT) receiving an adequate dose of RRT.MethodsWe prospectively enrolled all consecutive patients admitted to 21 intensive care units (ICUs) from nine countries and collected baseline characteristics, comorbidities, severity of illness, presence of sepsis, daily physiologic parameters and fluid intake-output, AKI stage, need for RRT and survival status. Daily fluid balance was computed and fluid overload (FO) was defined as percentage of admission body weight (BW). Maximum fluid overload (MFO) was the peak value of FO.ResultsWe analysed 1734 patients. A total of 991 (57 %) had N-AKI, 560 (32 %) had AKI but did not have RRT and 183 (11 %) had AKI-RRT. ICU mortality was 22.3 % in AKI patients and 5.6 % in those without AKI (p < 0.0001). Progressive fluid accumulation was seen in all three groups. Maximum fluid accumulation occurred on day 2 in N-AKI patients (2.8 % of BW), on day 3 in AKI patients not receiving RRT (4.3 % of BW) and on day 5 in AKI-RRT patients (7.9 % of BW). The main findings were: (1) the odds ratio (OR) for hospital mortality increased by 1.075 (95 % confidence interval 1.055–1.095) with every 1 % increase of MFO. When adjusting for severity of illness and AKI status, the OR changed to 1.044. This phenomenon was a continuum and independent of thresholds as previously reported. (2) Multivariate analysis confirmed that the speed of fluid accumulation was independently associated with ICU mortality. (3) Fluid accumulation increased significantly in the 3-day period prior to the diagnosis of AKI and peaked 3 days later.ConclusionsIn critically ill patients, the severity and speed of fluid accumulation are independent risk factors for ICU mortality. Fluid balance abnormality precedes and follows the diagnosis of AKI.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13054-016-1355-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

In intensive care patients, 24-h CrCl results in a large proportion of non-valid determinations, even under conditions of close monitoring. Two-hour CrCl is an adequate substitute, even in patients who are unstable or who have irregular diuresis where a 24-h collection is impossible. The Cockroft-Gault equation seems less useful in this setting.

Background Intravenous drug administration is associated with potential complications, such as phlebitis. The physiochemical characteristics of the infusate play a very important role in some of these problems. Aim The aim of this study was to standardize the dilutions of intravenous drugs most commonly used in hospitalized adult patients and to characterize their pH, osmolarity and cytotoxic nature to better guide the selection of the most appropriate vascular access. Methods The project was conducted in three phases: (i) standardization of intravenous therapy, which was conducted using a modified double-round Delphi method; (ii) characterization of the dilutions agreed on in the previous phase by means of determining the osmolarity and pH of each of the agreed concentrations, and recording the vesicant nature based on the information in literature; and (iii) algorithm proposal for selecting the most appropriate vascular access, taking into account the information gathered in the previous phases. Results In total, 112 drugs were standardized and 307 different admixtures were assessed for pH, osmolarity and vesicant nature. Of these, 123 admixtures (40%), had osmolarity values >600 mOsm/L, pH < 4 or > 9, or were classified as vesicants. In these cases, selection of the most suitable route of infusion and vascular access device is crucial to minimize the risk of phlebitis-type complications. Conclusions Increasing safety of intravenous therapy should be a priority in the healthcare settings. Knowing the characteristics of drugs to assess the risk involved in their administration related to their physicochemical nature may be useful to guide decision making regarding the most appropriate vascular access and devices.

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