Risk factors for acute kidney injury among patients with rhabdomyolysis

Abstract

Background Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a life-threatening complication of rhabdomyolysis (RM). The aim of the present study was to assess patients at high risk for the occurrence of AKI defined by the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes criteria and in-hospital mortality. Methods We performed a retrospective study of patients with creatine kinase levels >1000 U/L, who were admitted to the West China Hospital of Sichuan University between January 2011 and March 2019. The sociodemographic, clinical and laboratory data of these patients were obtained from an electronic medical records database, and univariate and multivariate regression analyses were subsequently conducted. Results For the 329 patients included in our study, the incidence of AKI was 61.4%, and the overall mortality rate was 19.8%; furthermore, patients with AKI tended to have higher mortality rates than those without AKI (24.8% vs. 11.8%; P<0.01). The clinical conditions most frequently associated with RM were trauma (28.3%), sepsis (14.6%), bee sting (12.8%), thoracic and abdominal surgery (11.2%) and exercise (7.0%). Furthermore, patients with RM resulting from sepsis, bee sting and acute alcoholism were more susceptible to AKI. The risk factors for the occurrence of AKI among RM patients included age ≥60 years (OR=3.070), chronic alcoholism (OR=3.256), hypertension (OR=4.252), multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS; OR=7.244), high levels of white blood cell count (OR=1.047) and elevated serum phosphorus (OR=5.526). Age ≥60 years (OR=3.188), MODS (OR=2.262), diabetes (OR=2.746) and elevated prothrombin time (OR=1.079) were independent risk factors for in-hospital mortality in RM patients with AKI. Conclusions AKI is independently associated with mortality in patients with RM, and several risk factors were found to be associated with the occurrence of AKI and in-hospital mortality. These findings suggest that, to improve the quality of medical care, the early prevention of AKI should focus on high-risk patients and more effective management.