Cautious application of the hepatorenal syndrome criteria to critically ill patients with cirrhosis

摘要

In clinical practice, differential diagnosis of the main phenotypes of acute kidney injury (AKI) may be difficult in patients with cirrhosis because the precipitating factors as well as the clinical presentation may be very similar. Nevertheless, an algorithm to aid the process of differential diagnosis has been suggested based mainly on the more recent diagnostic criteria for hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) (1, 2). However, the practitioner should be cautious when applying these criteria to critically ill patients with cirrhosis.