Nephrologist Follow-Up After Acute Kidney Injury Prolongs Survival.

Patients with acute kidney injury who see a nephrologist soon after hospital discharge have a 24% reduced risk of dying within 2 years compared with those who do not see a kidney specialist. That's the conclusion of a Kidney International study of 1184 patients who developed acute kidney injury as a complication of hospitalization. All patients received inpatient dialysis and survived at least 90 days following discharge. Half of the patients saw a nephrologist within those 90 days. The incidence of death for patients with early follow-up was 8.4 per 100 patient years, compared with 10.6 for those without.