Épidémiologie et pronostic des insuffisances rénales aiguës en réanimation

Acute renal failure (ARF) in intensive care units (ICU) is a common problem with an extremely high mortality. Until the Second International Consensus Conference of the Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative group, there was no consensus definition of ARF for ICU patients. This overview covers the different definitions for ARF and focus on the RIFLE system which classify ARF in three severity and two clinical outcome categories. Epidemiology, clinical causes, mechanisms, prognostic factors and long term outcome are summarised. Recent insights into the prognosis are discussed. We highlight the fact that ARF conveys a significant risk of death and that hospital outcome of patients treated with renal replacement therapy seems to improve in the last decade.