Raghunathan, K., Kempker, J. A., Davis, E. A., Sindhwani, N. S., Telang, S., Lodaya, K., & Martin, G. S. (2022). Early Albumin Infusion Is Associated With Greater Survival to Discharge Among Patients With Sepsis/Septic Shock Who Develop Severe Acute Kidney Injury Among Patients With Sepsis/Septic Shock Who Develop Severe Acute Kidney Injury. Critical care explorations, 4(12), e0793. https://doi.org/10.1097/CCE.0000000000000793 Erratum in: Crit Care Explor. 2023 Jan 18;5(1):e0852.
Abstract
Importance: Adults hospitalized with sepsis/septic shock commonly develop acute kidney injury (AKI) which imposes a significant burden on the healthcare system. The administration of early human albumin in this patient population may yield more efficient healthcare resource utilization.
Objectives: To examine the association between early use of albumin and time to discharge in adults who develop severe AKI while hospitalized with sepsis/septic shock.
Design: Retrospective cohort study using de-identified electronic health records from a national database (Cerner Health Facts; Cerner Corp., Kansas City, MO).
Setting and participants: Patients (n = 2,829) hospitalized between January 2013 and April 2018 with a diagnosis of sepsis/septic shock (identified using International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision and 10th Revision codes) who developed severe AKI (stage 3 according to Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes criteria) during hospitalization (n = 2,845 unique encounters).
Main outcomes and measures: Patients were grouped according to timing of albumin exposure: within less than or equal to 24 hours of admission (“early albumin”) or unexposed/exposed late (“nonearly albumin”). A cause-specific hazard model, censoring for death/discharge to hospice, was used to examine the association between “early albumin” and the rate of hospital discharge with clinical stability.
Results: Albumin was administered early in 8.6% of cases. Cases with early albumin administration had a median time to discharge of 13.2 days compared with 17.0 in the nonearly group (Log-rank p < 0.0001). An adjusted analysis showed that the rate of hospital discharge with clinical stability increased by 83% in the early albumin group compared with the nonearly group (hazard ratio, 1.832; 95% CI, 1.564-2.146; p < 0.001 nonearly group.
Conclusions and relevance: The use of albumin within 24 hours of hospital admission was associated with a shorter time to discharge and a higher rate of discharge with clinical stability, suggesting an improvement in healthcare resource utilization among patients with sepsis/septic shock who developed stage 3 AKI during hospitalization.