Post-partum acute kidney injury

To determine the risk factors,course of hospital stay and mortality rate among women with post-partum acute kidney injury (AKI),we studied (of 752 patients with AKI admitted to a tertiary care center during the study period between November 2009 and August 2012) 27 (3.59%) women with post-partum AKI. The data regarding age,parity,cause of renal failure,course of hospital stay and requirement of dialysis were recorded. Sepsis was the major cause (70.3%) of post-partum AKI. Other causes included disseminated intravascular coagulation (55.5%),pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (40.7%),ante- and post-partum hemorrhage (40.7% and 22.2%) and hemolytic anemia and elevated liver enzymes and low platelet count syndrome (29.6%); most patients had more than one cause of AKI. We found a very high prevalence (18.5%) of cortical necrosis in our study patients. A significant correlation was also found between the creatinine level on admission and the period of onset of disease after delivery. In conclusion,several factors are involved in causing post-partum AKI in our population,and sepsis was the most common of them.