Long-term outcome of cats and dogs with acute kidney injury treated with intermittent hemodialysis: 135 cases (1997-2010)

Objective To determine the long-term outcome for small animal patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) treated with intermittent hemodialysis (IHD). Design Retrospective case series. Animals-42 cats and 93 dogs treated with IHD for AKI. Procedures Medical records of cats and dogs treated with IHD for AKI from January 1997 to October 2010 were reviewed. Standard methods of survival analysis with Kaplan-Meier product limit curves were used. The log-rank, Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to determine whether outcome, number of IHD treatments, or duration of hospitalization was different when dogs and cats were classified according to specific variables. Results The overall survival rate at the time of hospital discharge was 50% (21/42) for cats and 53% (49/93) for dogs. The overall survival rate 30 days after hospital discharge was 48% (20/42) for cats and 42% (39/93) for dogs. The overall survival rate 365 days after hospital discharge was 38% (16/42) for cats and 33% (31/93) for dogs. For all-cause mortality, the median survival time was 7 days (95% confidence interval, 0 to 835 days) for cats and 9 days (95% confidence interval, 0 to 55 days) for dogs. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance Cats and dogs with AKI treated with IHD have survival rates similar to those of human patients. Although there was a high mortality rate prior to hospital discharge, those patients that survived to discharge had a high probability of long-term survival. (J Am Vet Med Assoc 2012;241:1471-1478)