Acute kidney injury (AKI) is an abrupt decline in kidney function occurring within hours or days. In patients having surgery, postoperative AKI is a major complication associated with adverse outcomes including mortality.

Postoperative AKI is common but reported incidences substantially vary. Zarbock and colleagues, with an international observational study on more than 10,000 patients, now provide much needed insights into the incidence of postoperative AKI in patients having major surgery.

The findings of the study are sobering.

About 1 in every 5 patients having major surgery requiring postoperative treatment in an intensive care or high-dependency unit developed AKI according to the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) criteria within the first three postoperative days.

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