Increased renal perfusion and kidney size in convalescent burn patients.
Renal blood flow was elevated in convalescent burn patients shortly before discharge (992 +/- 112 mL/min/sq m in burn patients vs 551 +/- 37 mL/min/sq m in normal subjects; mean +/- SE). Autopsy studies demonstrated that renal enlargement was a constant feature of patients after a prolonged hospital course; the kidneys of 28 patients who died after 60 days of hospitalization weighed 241 +/- 10 g vs 153 +/- 8 g in control subjects. The increase in renal weight was primarily related to cellular hypertrophy and hyperplasia. These physiological and morphological findings in thermally injured patients may be a form of renal work hypertrophy following increased protein catabolism accompanying severe injury.
D000328:Adult; D002056:Burns / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003289:Convalescence; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D006965:Hyperplasia; D006984:Hypertrophy; D007668:Kidney / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D012039:Regional Blood Flow