Better medicines management could slash deaths from acute kidney injury

摘要

ACUTE kidney injury (AKI) is a "hidden iceberg" killer, which good basic medical care and better consultation skills could help to prevent, a national kidney care expert has said.Speaking last week at an NHS Kidney Care conference in London about improving outcomes and safety for acutely ill patients, the Department of Health's national clinical director for kidney care Donal O'Donoghue said that one fifth of patients admitted to hospital as emergency patients will develop AKI (see Panel).Mismanagement of medicines such as heart failure drugs, antihypertensives and antidiabetic agents is a key cause, the conference heard, so ensuring patients have their medicines reviewed is important.