Kobe Journal of Medical Sciences, 1993

TI: What decides: high mortality in paediatric acute renal failure?

AU: Singh-RG; Agarwal-DK; Usha; Jha-A; Dube-B; Bhargava-V

AD: Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

SO: Kobe-J-Med-Sci. 1993 Apr; 39(2): 51-7

AB: Forty paediatric cases of A.R.F. (Acute Renal Failure) of various aetiology were included in the study. 60% of patients were less than 4 years of age with male predominance. 80% cases reported to us very late with oligoanuria of more than 24 hours (2-7 days). Diarrhoea, vomiting and fever were other dominant symptoms. Maximum cases were severely anaemic (87.5%) with mean Hb 7.73 +/- 1.9 gm%. 40% cases were of underweight while only one case (2.5%) was of over weight, inspite of volume excess in 40% cases. All 24 cases, who were estimated for serum albumin, found to have marked hypoalbuminemia. Mortality was found to be as high as 65% inspite of effective peritoneal dialysis in all cases. High mortality seems to be due to profound anuria of many days (because of marked delay in reaching the hospital), fever and malnutrition besides other factors as aetiology.