Improving the identification of acute kidney injury in the neonatal ICU: three centers’ experiences

Objective: To describe three different standardized approaches to improving neonatal acute kidney injury (AKI) identification and the impact on AKI identification, incidence, and nephrology consultation and referral. Study design: A retrospective cohort study in three academic NICUs. We compared AKI identification, AKI incidence, nephrology consultation, and nephrology follow-up before and after implantation of local protocols to standardize neonatal AKI identification. Result: Neonatal AKI identification improved in all three NICUs following protocol implementation (26–85%, P < 0.0001). Each center also saw increases in nephrology consultation (15–83%, P < 0.0001) and nephrology follow-up (7–73%, P < 0.0001). AKI incidence decreased significantly (21–12%, P < 0.0001). Conclusion: Multiple strategies can be successfully operationalized to improve neonatal AKI identification. While different in approach, each strategy resulted in increased AKI identification and nephrology involvement. This study emphasizes the importance of local standardized approaches to AKI to improve AKI identification and nephrology involvement in the NICU.