Hybrid Therapies for Supporting Critically Ill Patients with Acute Kidney Injury: When, how, and for Whom?

ABSTRACT Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in critically ill patients. There is no specific pharmacological treatment for established severe AKI. Therefore, the conventional therapeutic strategy is limited to the use of kidney replacement therapy (KRT) to maintain homeostasis. Hybrid therapies optimize the advantages of intermittent and continuous modalities of KRT, combining lower hourly efficiency, longer application time, at lesser cost, but also adding different physicochemical principles of extracorporeal clearance. The sum of convection and diffusion, with or without adsorption or apheresis, and in different time combinations gives hybrid techniques great flexibility in prescribing a personalized treatment adapted to the needs of each patient at any given time. Hybrid therapies are increasingly being used due to their flexibility, which is determined by the combination of equipment, membranes, and available resources (machines and health-care personnel experience). The required technology is widely available in most intensive care units and uses low-cost consumables compared to other types of AKI treatment modalities, favoring its widespread use. Hybrid therapies are feasible and provide a viable form of KRT, either alone or as a transition therapy from continuous kidney replacement therapy to intermittent hemodialysis.

Evaluación de función tubular renal. Valor de estudio simplificado / Evaluation of the renal tubular function. Value of the simplified study

El compromiso túbulointersticial en las nefropatías es uno de los mecanismos responsables de la progresión a la insuficiencia renal extrema. Las pruebas funcionales renales pueden ser un instrumento útil para el diagnóstico y el seguimiento de este compromiso tubulointersticial. Los objetivos de este trabajo son evaluar un conjunto simplificado de pruebas de función tubular en el estudio de nefropatías tubulointersticiales y en glomerulopatías. Se estudiaron 75 pacientes, 38 con diagnóstico probable de nefropatía tubulointeristicial y 37 glomerulopatías. Se evaluó presencia de diskalemia, glucosurina, alteración de equilibrio ácido base y capacidad de concentración urinaria. La disfunción tubular fue frecuente en los pacientes con glomerulopatías (0,65) aún en aquellos pacientes con creatininemia menor 1.4 mg por ciento (0,45). Mediante estas pruebas es posible topografiar el sector nefronal comprometido