Acute Kidney Injury: Risk Factors and Management Challenges in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Abstract

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a major global health problem, occurring in >13 million people and responsible for >2.3 million deaths every year, 85% of which are in developing countries. Although the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) set a goal of eliminating preventable deaths by AKI by 2025, implementation of this program in developing countries presents major challenges for several reasons: there are few data on the epidemiology and causes of AKI in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC); health care resources to diagnose, manage, and treat AKI are often limited; and governments, institutions, and global health initiatives have not focussed sufficiently on the AKI problems. Thus, developing and implementing effective strategies to eliminate preventable deaths from AKI in LMIC have required efforts to better understand how to increase the awareness of AKI by health care workers and institutions.