Acute renal failure

This chapter describes acute renal failure and rhabdomyolysis. Haemofiltration is covered in Chapter 40.

Up to one quarter of ICU patients develop acute renal failure (Bellomo et al., 2001), usually as a complication from poor perfusion during multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) (Wright et al., 2003). Distinctions between acute and chronic failure are arbitrary, often 100 days, but acute renal failure usually occurs relatively quickly, and is usually reversible (although patients with multisystem failure may die before the kidney recovers). Treatment aims to replace renal function while optimising recovery of renal tissue.