Faculty Opinions recommendation of Acute renal failure - definition, outcome measures, animal models, fluid therapy and information technology needs: the Second International Consensus Conference of the Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative (ADQI) Group.

Abstract

Using glomerular filtration rate and urine output as renal injury criteria, the authors of this systematic review developed a classification system describing various levels of renal injury and renal injury outcomes which I believe is easy to use, relatively accurate in clinical description of renal injury, and should be used uniformly in clinical studies. Additionally, techniques for assessing and achieving fluid balance in patients with acute renal injury - a clinically very important topic - are purely described. This is a nice review of the limitations of clinical and laboratory assessment of acute renal injury. As well as the existence of more than 30 different definitions of acute renal failure in literature, there has been a lot of controversy regarding fluid management and end-points of clinical trials in critical care arena. However, following this paper we now have a consensus on definition of acute renal failure, fluid management and physiological end-points for acute renal failure studies in critically ill patients. The Second International Consensus Conference of the Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative Group systematically reviewed the available evidence and developed several recommendations for research in this field. Most importantly they achieved consensus on definition/classification system for acute renal failure.