Importance of RIFLE (Risk, Injury, Failure, Loss, and End-Stage Renal Failure) and AKIN (Acute Kidney Injury Network) in Hemodialysis Initiation and Intensive Care Unit Mortality.

Our study evaluated the differences between early and late hemodialysis (HD) initiation in the intensive care unit (ICU) according to the RIFLE (Risk, Injury, Failure, Loss, and End-stage renal failure) and AKIN (Acute Kidney Injury Network) classifications. On the assumption that early initiation of HD in critical patients according to the RIFLE and AKIN criteria decreases mortality, we retrospectively evaluated the medical records of 68 patients in our medical ICU and divided the patients into 2 groups: Those undergoing HD in no risk, risk, or injury stage according to RIFLE and in stage 0, I, or II according to AKIN were defined as early HD and those in failure stage according to RIFLE and in stage III according to AKIN were defined as late HD. The median age of the patients was 66.