Incidence of acute kidney injury in COVID-19 infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Acute kidney injury (AKI) has been reported as a severe complication of COVID-19 with a higher risk of mortality [1], but the incidence of AKI among those infected with COVID-19 is currently only based on reports from small case series and retrospective studies [2, 3]. [...]in this work, we aim to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of published articles to quantify the incidence of AKI in COVID-19 patients. The incidence of AKI is expressed as proportion and 95% confidence interval (CI) using the random effects model and presented as a forest plot. Several mechanisms are possible for AKI in COVID-19 patients, including multi-organ dysfunction syndrome, SARS-CoV-2 direct kidney infection [25], AKI following acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), infection-related generalized mitochondrial failure, and cytokine storm syndrome. [...]clinical heterogeneity between studies should be noted, whereby detailed information on patient characteristics was lacking in the published articles.