Acute renal failure in the elderly: experience from a single centre in India

A total of 139 patients with acute renal failure (ARF) werestudied, of which 41 (29.4%) were elderly with mean age of 67.1years and 98 (70.6%) were younger with mean age of 32.3 years.Surgical causes accounted for 65% of geriatric ARF while medicalcauses were predominant in the younger patients (55.1%). Amongstthe surgical causes, prostate-related problems due to obstructionor following transurethral resection of prostate were seen in20 patients (74%). Drugs and sepsis were the predominant causesof medical ARF in the geriatric patients (85.7%). Of all thecauses of geriatric ARF, which included both medical and surgical,nephrotoxic drugs either alone or in combination with otherpredisposing factors were the cause in 22 (51%) patients. Haemodialysiswas needed in 15 of geriatric (36.6%) and 64 of younger (65.3%)ARF patients. Recovery from ARF, as evidenced by normalizationof serum creatinine, was delayed in the elderly as comparedto the younger patients (32.0 versus 11.4 days, P< 0.001).Mortality, though higher in the elderly as compared to the youngerpatients, was not significantly different (9.75% versus 6.1%).