title: Acute renal failure in the elderly: experience from a single centre in India.
abstract: A total of 139 patients with acute renal failure (ARF) were studied, of which 41 (29.4%) were elderly with mean age of 67.1 years and 98 (70.6%) were younger with mean age of 32.3 years. Surgical causes accounted for 65% of geriatric ARF while medical causes were predominant in the younger patients (55.1%). Amongst the surgical causes, prostate-related problems due to obstruction or following transurethral resection of prostate were seen in 20 patients (74%). Drugs and sepsis were the predominant causes of medical ARF in the geriatric patients (85.7%). Of all the causes of geriatric ARF, which included both medical and surgical, nephrotoxic drugs either alone or in combination with other predisposing factors were the cause in 22 (51%) patients. Haemodialysis was needed in 15 of geriatric (36.6%) and 64 of younger (65.3%) ARF patients. Recovery from ARF, as evidenced by normalization of serum creatinine, was delayed in the elderly as compared to the younger patients (32.0 versus 11.4 days, P < 0.001). Mortality, though higher in the elderly as compared to the younger patients, was not significantly different (9.75% versus 6.1%).
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Arora
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kher
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kohli
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jha
mesh_terms: D058186:Acute Kidney Injury / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis