The AKIN and the RIFLE Limping Criteria to Predict Renal Injury and Mortality Following Cardiac Surgery

When published in 2006, the RIFLE criteria filled the gap for the failing definition of acute kidney injury [1]. The criteria were scheduled to be evaluated. According to the authors who used these criteria in assessing renal impairment, acute kidney injury (AKI) occurred in 67% of ICU (intensive care unit) admissions, with maximum RIFLE class R and F in 12% and 28% respectively. They warned as to the risk of in hospital mortality compared to those who did not pass class R. Events happened in a general ICU. Later, Bagshaw et al retrospectively studied the fate of the patients admitted in 57 New Zealand adult ICUs including over 120,000 critically ill patients, of which 27.8% had a primary diagnosis of sepsis. They concluded that compared to the RIFLE criteria, the AKIN criteria were unable ”to improve the sensitivity, robustness and predictive ability of the definition and classification of AKI in the first 24 hours after admission to ICU” [2].[More]