Background-The outcome for children with acute renal failure (ARF) may be p
oor. However, relatively few published studies have considered prognosis of
these patients.
Methods-We prospectively studied, from 1978 to 1998, 92 such children witho
ut heart disease to try to identify risk factors for mortality.
Results-Forty five per cent of children with tumours, shock, and other caus
es died compared with none of those with a primary urinary tract related pr
oblem. ARF did not seem to be the cause of death in any case. Univariate an
alysis showed that in the non-primary urinary problem group (55 cases), pat
ients with hypotension, high values of BUN or creatinine, or who needed mec
hanical ventilation or dialysis, had a poor outcome. Multivariate analysis
showed that probability of death can be estimated using the following score
: -0.02 + 0.28 (hypotension) + 0.19 (ventilation) + 0.27 (dialysis) + 0.01
(BUN).
Conclusions-Mortality of patients with ARF was related to aetiology, the ne
ed for dialysis and/or ventilator use, hypotension, and BUN values.