Acute pyelonephritis with renal abscesses and acute renal failure after salmonella infection.

UNLABELLED: Urinary tract infections, renal abscess formation and acute renal failure (ARF) after salmonella infection are rarely reported in children. We present a previously healthy teenager who developed ARF with renal abscess formation after salmonella infection, in whom we believe that acute salmonella pyelonephritis was the main causative factor for ARF and not dehydration, shock or rhabdomyolysis, which have already been described in the literature. With prolonged antibiotic treatment and adequate hydration, the boy's condition improved, but chronic kidney disease was unfortunately inevitable. CONCLUSION: Salmonella pyelonephritis has, according to our knowledge, not yet been described to be the main causative factor of ARF in previously healthy children, as was the case in our patient. Long-term antibiotic treatment of at least 6 weeks is probably a must in such patients, even though chronic kidney disease could not have been prevented.

Low-flux versus high-flux synthetic dialysis membrane in acute renal failure: prospective randomized study.

The influence of dialyzer membrane on the morbidity and mortality of patients with acute renal failure remains a matter of debate. The aim of the prospective randomized clinical study was to assess the influence of the flux of a synthetic dialyzer membrane on patients' survival rate, restitution of renal function, and duration of hemodialysis treatment of patients with acute renal failure as a part of multiorgan failure. Seventy-two patients treated in intensive care units of the University Medical Center Ljubljana were randomized according to the dialyzer used throughout the duration of hemodialysis treatment. There were 38 patients in the low-flux group (dialyzer F6, low-flux polysuphone, Fresenius, Bad Homburg, Germany) and 34 patients in the high-flux group (dialyzer Filtral 12, sulphonated high-flux polyacrylonitrile, Hospal, Industrie Meyzieu, France). Both groups were balanced in terms of sex, age, APACHE II score, oliguria before dialysis, cause of acute renal failure, inotropic support, mechanical ventilation, and the number of failing organs. The patients' survival rate was 18.7% in the low-flux group and 20.6% in the high-flux group. Ten patients (26.3%) recovered their renal function in the low-flux group and 8 (23.5%) in the high-flux group. Hemodialysis treatment lasted 11.2 days in the low-flux and 10.7 days in the high-flux group. An analysis of subgroups with a lower mortality rate (subgroup of patients without oliguria and subgroup of patients with less than 4 failed organ systems) did not show significant differences between the low-flux and high-flux groups in terms of survival rate, recovery of renal function, and duration of hemodialysis treatment. In conclusion, no significant differences were found in the results of low-flux versus high-flux synthetic membrane dialyzer treatment in patients with acute renal failure as a part of multiorgan failure in terms of survival rate, recovery of renal function, incidence of oliguria during hemodialysis, and duration of hemodialysis treatment. The number of failing organs seems to be the most important single factor determining the survival of patients with acute renal failure as a part of multiorgan failure.