Acute kidney injury and peritoneal dialysis in extremely low birth weight newborns.

Background: In 12.5-56% of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants treated in newborn units, acute kidney injury (AKI) develops. Some of these infants may need renal replacement therapy for several reasons including hyperkalemia, hypovolemia and resistant acidosis.

Methods: All ELBW infants who were followed in our hospital between January 2015 and December 2017 and who lived longer than 48 hours were assessed. Patients were followed for AKI and peritoneal dialysis (PD).

Results: AKI developed in 25 of 201 ELBW infants. PD was administered to nine patients. PD was initiated at a median of 11 days (2-22 days) for all patients due to hyperkalemia which did not respond to medical treatment. Three of the nine infants who received PD died while dialysis was ongoing. The remaining six patients completed PD successfully. In these patients, the serum potassium value returned to normal in three days, and dialysis was continued for a median of 93 hours (40-172 hours). Dialysis leakage occurred in two patients, and hyperglycemia developed in two patients. On average, diuresis started at the 25^th hour (8-40^th hour).

Conclusions: In the renal failure treatment of ELBW infants, PD is the only option which can be used for many units. It was found that in ELBW infants, who had wider peritoneal surface when compared to their body weight, biochemical values recovered rapidly with PD, and diuresis started a short while later in most patients.