acute renal failure

acute renal failure

An abrupt decline in renal function, marked by a rise in serum creatinine or azotemia, triggered by various processes—e.g., sepsis, shock, trauma, kidney stones, drug toxicity (aspirin, lithium, substances of abuse), toxins, iodinated radiocontrast.

Clinical findings
• Cardiovascular
Congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, cardiac arrest occur in up to 35% of patients with ARF. The elderly with low cardiac reserve are at risk of fluid overload secondary to oliguric ARF.

• Pulmonary
Lung disease occurs in over half of patients with ARF and may be linked to shared pulmonary and renal syndromes—e.g., Goodpasture syndrome, Wegener granulomatosis, polyarteritis nodosa, cryoglobulinemia, sarcoidosis. Hypoxia is common during hemodialysis and attributed to white cell sequestration by the lungs and alveolar hypoventilation.

• GI tract
Nausea, vomiting, anorexia; GI bleeding occurs in ± one third of patients with ARF and causes nearly 10% of deaths in patients with ARF. Other GI complaints include pancreatitis, jaundice linked to hepatic congestion, blood transfusions, and sepsis.

• Infections
Occur in up to 33% of patients with ARF; most occur in the lungs and urinary tract, and have mortality rates of up to 72%.
 
• Neurologic signs of uraemia occur in one-third of ARF patients, and have the expected findings of lethargy, somnolence, reversal of the sleep-wake cycle, and cognitive or memory deficits.

Types
• Prerenal—adaptive response to volume depletion and hypotension.
• Renal/intrinsic—response to cytotoxicity, ischaemia, or inflammation with structural and functional damage to the renal parenchyma.
• Postrenal—obstruction to the passage of urine.

Acute renal failure by type
Crescentic GN—renal vasculitis, anti-GBM disease, immune complex diseases.
Acute tubular injury—ischaemic, toxic, crystals, myoglobinuria
Acute tubulointerstitial nephritis.
Thrombotic microangiopathy—haemolytic-uraemic syndrome, accelerated hypertension, scleroderma.

Segen's Medical Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.

acute renal failure

Acute kidney failure Nephrology An abrupt decline in renal function, triggered by various processes–eg, sepsis, shock, trauma, kidney stones, drug toxicity-aspirin, lithium, substances of abuse, toxins, iodinated radiocontrast. Cf Chronic kidney failure.

McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

a·cute re·nal fail·ure

(ARF) (ă-kyūt' rē'năl fāl'yŭr)

A rapid decline of kidney function due to tubular injury. Signs are azotemia, fluid and electrolyte imbalance, and metabolic acidosis. Commonly caused by ischemia or nephrotoxins.

Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing © Farlex 2012