Effect of renal replacement therapy on acute kidney injury in sepsis patients

Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2018.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 39-40).According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are approximately 1.5 million cases of sepsis and over 250,000 resultant deaths each year [1]. One of the major effects of sepsis is organ failure, notably in the kidneys, lungs, liver, and brain. In the case where the kidneys fail, renal replacement therapy (RRT) may be performed in order to sustain the functionality of the kidneys and overall ameliorate patients' outcomes. The goal of this work is to determine the relationship between undergoing RRT and patient outcome. The Philips-MIT eICU Collaborative Research Database was used to identify patients with sepsis and acute kidney injury, and split the cohort into those who had undergone RRT and those who did not. Multivariate logistic regression and propensity score analysis were utilized to evaluate the treatment effect on mortality. The patients who underwent RRT had a significantly better outcome than those who did not (odds ratio = 0.260465, 95% confidence interval = 0.211568 to 0.320664, p