ABSTRACT
Introduction Acute renal failure (ARF) develops in between 5% and 7% of hospitalised patients, but only a small number of these patients require renal replacement therapy. Of these, the mortality rate is approximately 50% and has not changed over the past several decades, despite the many technological advances in that time. If multiorgan failure is present, the mortality rate approaches 90%. The management of ARF, especially that requiring renal replacement therapy, presents a special challenge to renal nurses. Despite the current trend towards managing these patients in intensive care units, many present initially to the renal ward, or require post-acute management in renal areas. To provide appropriate care for these patients, renal nurses need to understand the differences between the pathophysiology of CRF and ARF, and appreciate the features that are shared by these two disease processes.
