Clinical Profile of Acute Kidney Injury in Geriatric Patients in North Eastern Tertiary Care Hospital

Objective: Improvements in the health care system, resulted in a greater number of geriatric patients diagnosed with acute kidney injury (AKI). We evaluated the incidence and outcome of AKI in geriatric patients, as studies in Indian population are few; moreover, treatment approaches, in addition to medical decisions, may require special consideration for advanced age to improve the outcomes. Results: At Gauhati medical college and hospital, we recruited patients aged more than 60 years who were admitted to the medicine ward with AKI between December 2023 to July 2024. Patients were followed-up during hospital stay until discharge. 100 patients were admitted during the study period. Using the acute kidney injury network classification; stage 1, stage 2, and stage 3 disease were present in 24%, 41% and 35% of patients, respectively. Of the 23 patients who died before discharge, 13 had stage 3 and 10 had stage 2 AKI. The most common comorbidity in our study group was type 2 diabetes mellitus (17), 6 had hypertension, 5 patients had underlying malignancy and other comorbidities like coronary artery disease, chronic liver disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with 4 patients in each group. Methodology: Ours is a tertiary care teaching institute in North Eastern part of the country. This was a single-institute prospective observation study of clinical data collected from patients during December 2023 to July 2024. Data collection was started after obtaining permission from the Institutional Ethics Committee. Convenience sampling technique was used. The study followed the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki (2008). This manuscript followed the STROBE guideline for reporting. Conclusion: Prevention of AKI and early detection with reversal of cause, addressing complications and determining the need for RRT in geriatric patients will improve overall survival and decrease associated morbidity in this patient population.