Acute Renal Failure in the Neonatal Period in the Eastern Anatolia Region

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical and laboratory characteristics of acute kidney injury (AKI) in newborns followed up in our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). MATERIAL and METHODS: This prospective study was performed in 59 newborns referred to our NICU through the completion of previously prepared forms. The Mann-Whitney U test and Student t-test were used for statistical analysis. Ethical committee approval was obtained for the study. RESULTS: Eight hundred eighteen newborns were followed up in our NICU during the study period, 59 of whom (7.2%) were diagnosed as AKI. In terms of type of renal failure, 80% of the cases had prerenal AKI, 17% had renal AKI and 3% had postrenal AKI. Eighty-three percent of cases with prerenal AKI had dehydration secondary to breast-feeding malnutrition. Thirty percent of cases with renal AKI had prolonged prerenal AKI. The clinical course of AKI was oliguric/unuric in 43 cases. Mortality rate was 1.7%. CONCLUSION: These results show that the most important cause of AKI in our region is inadequate breast-feeding. We think that this problem can be signifi cantly reduced by mothers receiving adequate training regarding breast-feeding and its importance during pregnancy and after delivery, and that babies should be discharged once the physician is sure that they are breast-fed adequately by their mothers.