Plate Nº 72 · recorded September 29, 2026
Health & Medicine ResearchReported finding
Pediatric Kidney Injury Hospitalizations Rose Tenfold Since 1997
U.S. pediatric hospitalizations with acute kidney injury rose from 6,318 per year in 1997 to 63,923 in 2022, while mortality fell sharply, a JAMA Network Open study finds.
By Elena Vasquez3 min read625 words
In brief
- Annual AKI-complicated pediatric hospitalizations rose from 6,318 in 1997 to 63,923 in 2022; dialysis-requiring cases rose from 981 to 2,075.
- AKI-D rates increased from 2.4 to 5.5 per 10,000; mortality among AKI hospitalizations fell from 1,814 to 643 per 10,000 between 2003 and 2022.
- The retrospective study, led by Dr. Alexander J. Kula of Lurie Children's Hospital, analyzed 24,344,876 hospital discharges.
Hospitalizations of children complicated by acute kidney injury rose sharply in the United States between 1997 and 2022, according to a study published online September 22 in JAMA Network Open. Cases requiring dialysis climbed as well, while deaths among affected children declined over the study period.
Dr. Alexander J. Kula of Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago and his colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study — a type of analysis that looks back at existing medical records rather than following patients forward in time. They examined national trends in pediatric hospitalizations carrying a diagnosis of acute kidney injury, or AKI, and acute kidney injury requiring dialysis, abbreviated AKI-D. AKI is the medical term for a sudden episode in which the kidneys lose their ability to filter waste and balance fluids; dialysis is a machine-based treatment that performs that filtering when the kidneys cannot.
The final analysis drew on a very large pool of data: 24,344,876 hospital discharges.
Using weighted estimates — a statistical method that adjusts sample data to represent the national population — the researchers calculated that 253,138 hospitalizations were complicated by AKI overall during the study window. The annual numbers grew dramatically. In 1997, an estimated 6,318 hospitalizations per year involved AKI and 981 involved AKI-D. By 2022, those figures had climbed to 63,923 and 2,075 cases per year, respectively. In other words, AKI-complicated hospitalizations increased roughly tenfold over 25 years.
The rate of AKI requiring dialysis also rose, from 2.4 to 5.5 per 10,000 hospitalizations.
There was one clearly encouraging trend. Mortality among hospitalizations with AKI fell from 1,814 deaths per 10,000 in 2003 to 643 per 10,000 in 2022. More children are being diagnosed, but a smaller share of them are dying.
Why the numbers matter beyond the hospital
The authors argue that the trend carries long-term consequences, not just immediate ones. "Pediatric health systems must be prepared to handle the short- and long-term impacts of pediatric AKI," they write.
Their concern stems from what is already known about the condition. "Since pediatric AKI is associated with higher rates of hypertension and chronic kidney disease, there may be a sizable and growing population of children transitioning to adult care at risk for these outcomes," the authors write. In plain terms: children who experience acute kidney injury face elevated risks of high blood pressure and long-term kidney damage later in life, and a growing cohort of them will soon be adults needing ongoing monitoring and care.
What the study can and cannot tell us
As with any retrospective study, this analysis has limits. It identifies diagnoses recorded in hospital discharge data, which means it captures trends in how often AKI appears in medical records — a figure that can be influenced by changes in how doctors recognize and code the condition. Growing awareness of AKI in pediatrics over the past two decades may explain part of the rise, though the study data alone cannot separate improved detection from a true increase in illness.
The absolute numbers are nonetheless substantial, and the direction of the trends is consistent across both AKI and its most severe form, AKI-D. That consistency suggests the burden of pediatric kidney injury on U.S. hospitals has genuinely grown.
The study, listed as Alexander J. Kula et al., "US Pediatric Hospitalizations Complicated by Acute Kidney Injury and Dialysis From 1997 to 2022," appears in JAMA Network Open (DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.35547).
For clinicians and health planners, the message is twofold. Hospitals should expect continued demand for pediatric kidney expertise, including dialysis capacity, and adult care systems should prepare to receive former patients whose kidneys were injured in childhood.
via Medical Xpress (Source)
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