Acute renal failure classification
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Aarti Narayan, M.B.B.S [2]
Overview
Acute renal failure can complicate a wide spectrum of disorders, and for the purpose of diagnosis and management is divided according to the mechanism that lead to renal compromise.
Classification
Acute renal failure is usually categorised (as in the flowchart below) according to pre-renal, renal and post-renal causes.
Acute Renal Failure | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pre-renal | Renal | Post-renal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- Pre-renal (causes in the blood supply):
- hypovolemia (decreased blood volume), usually from shock or dehydration and fluid loss or excessive diuretics use.
- hepatorenal syndrome in which renal perfusion is compromised in liver failure
- vascular problems, such as atheroembolic disease and renal vein thrombosis (which can occur as a complication of the nephrotic syndrome)
- Renal (damage to the kidney itself):
- infection usually sepsis (systemic inflammation due to infection),rarely of the kidney itself, termed pyelonephritis
- toxins or medication (e.g. some NSAIDs, aminoglycoside antibiotics, iodinated contrast, lithium)
- rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of muscle tissue) - the resultant release of myoglobin in the blood affects the kidney; it can be caused by injury (especially crush injury and extensive blunt trauma), statins, stimulants and some other drugs
- hemolysis (breakdown of red blood cells) - the hemoglobin damages the tubules; it may be caused by various conditions such as sickle-cell disease, and lupus erythematosus
- multiple myeloma, either due to hypercalcemia or "cast nephropathy" (multiple myeloma can also cause chronic renal failure by a different mechanism)
- acute glomerulonephritis which may be due to a variety of causes, such as anti glomerular basement membrane disease/Goodpasture's syndrome, Wegener's granulomatosis or acute lupus nephritis with systemic lupus erythematosus
- Post-renal (obstructive causes in the urinary tract) due to:
- medication interfering with normal bladder emptying.
- benign prostatic hypertrophy or prostate cancer.
- kidney stones.
- due to abdominal malignancy (e.g. ovarian cancer, colorectal cancer).
- obstructed urinary catheter.