ABSTRACT
ARF is not one disease, but a stereotyped renal response to myriad different renal insults, with different pathophysiologic mechanisms. ARF can arise alone, or in the context of two, three, or four organ failures (249, 250). Many of the renal insults that end up causing ARF are the result of modern medicine and surgery – there is some opportunity for prediction and prevention (not always grasped). Equally, prompt detection and diagnosis of ARF can arrest an otherwise inevitable cycle of events that leads to protracted renal shut-down and the need for dialysis, with the attendant increase in mortality.
