ACUTE KIDNEY INJURY IN COVID-19 PEDIATRIC PATIENTS: ANALYSIS OF THE VIRTUAL PEDIATRIC SYSTEMS DATA

ABSTRACT

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the 2019 novel coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19). Despite vast research about the adult population, there has been little data collected on acute kidney injury (AKI) epidemiology, associated risk factors, treatments, and mortality in pediatric COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU. AKI is a severe complication of COVID-19 among children and adolescents. Therefore, understanding all aspects of the disease is crucial to further developing treatment and preventative care strategies to reduce morbidity and mortality. This study aims to assess AKI incidence among COVID-19 pediatric patients in the pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) within North America using the Virtual Pediatric Systems (VPS) database. Additionally, this study assesses AKI associated risk factors, treatments such as kidney replacement therapy (KRT) and associated mortality rates among COVID-19 pediatric patients within North America using VPS data. This is a retrospective study of COVID-19 pediatric patients (age < 24 years) in the pediatric ICU within North America using the VPS COVID-19 database between January 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020. Currently data regarding 1240 pediatric COVID-19 patients has been analyzed. 172 of these patients had renal/urinary system involvement. Of the 172 patients with renal involvement, there were 19 confirmed deaths. This means that 45% of all confirmed pediatric COVID-19 deaths were associated with renal involvement. 36 patients received KRT and there are 2 confirmed deaths in this group. Additionally, 264 (24.67%) patients were diagnosed with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). Although COVID-19 in the pediatric population tends to present more favorably, renal involvement among the pediatric COVID-19 patient population may be considered a negative prognostic factor with respect to patient outcomes.