Emergence of the concept of acute kidney injury.
Acute kidney injury (AKI), a recently defined clinical entity, is an ailment that has afflicted humans from time immemorial. Its emergence as a disease follows by 50 years that of acute renal failure (ARF) after the Second World War. The medical model of ARF emerged as studies of the kidney in traumatic shock unraveled the pathophysiology of the disease and focused on its treatment with hemodialysis. ARF was reframed as AKI, based on the model that had been developed for chronic kidney disease, to incorporate the accrued epidemiologic data and present it as a public health model of disease that is potentially preventable and treatable at earlier stages of the disease.
Renal Section, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030-3498, USA. geknoyan@bcm.edu
Garabed
G
Eknoyan
D058186:Acute Kidney Injury / Q000266:history*; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D008887:Military Medicine / Q000266:history*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000266:history*