Acute Kidney Injury Associates with Increased Long-Term Mortality

Acute kidney injury (AKI) associates with higher in-hospital mortality, but whether it also associates with increased long-term mortality is unknown, particularly after accounting for residual kidney function after hospital discharge. We retrospectively analyzed data from US veteran patients who survived at least 90 d after discharge from a hospitalization. We identified AKI events not requiring dialysis from laboratory data and classified them according to the ratio of the highest creatinine during the hospitalization to the lowest creatinine measured between 90 d before hospitalization and the date of discharge. We estimated mortality risks using multivariable Cox regression models adjusting for…