Traditional and novel reference index for the withdrawal of renal replacement therapy in patients with acute kidney injury

Abstract

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious clinical problem with high morbidity and mortality. Renal replacement therapy (RRT) is an important tool for treating patients with AKI. The 2011 Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Clinical Practice Guideline for AKI points out that RRT should be discontinued when renal function has recovered enough to meet the body needs or when RRT is no longer consistent with treatment goals. However, the specific reference index of weaning RRT is unclear. The guiding roles of traditional indicators such as urine output (> 400 mL/24 h), serum creatinine (SCr, decreasing trend), creatinine clearance (CCr, > 20 mL/min), and novel biomarkers such as neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), interleukins (IL-6, IL-10), kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1), kynurenic acid, etc. for discontinuation of RRT in AKI patients were reviewed. Particularly, the importance of biomarkers for this purpose was highlighted.