Get basics right to improve acute kidney injury, says consensus conference

Every hospital in the United Kingdom is being urged to produce fluid therapy guidelines in an attempt to improve the care of acute kidney injury and potentially save thousands of lives a year.

A consensus conference organised by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh also supports the use of electronic alerts to warn clinicians of a patient’s deteriorating condition and calls for better training and education for clinical teams.

Acute kidney injury is a common condition that affects around a fifth of hospital patients in the UK and is associated with poor outcomes. Death rates from the condition have not fallen in the past 40 years, and a National Confidential Enquiry into …