Long-term outcome of acute tubular necrosis: A contribution to its natural history

As long-term outcome studies of acute renal failure (ARF) are scarce and non-homogeneous, we studied 187 consecutive acute tubular necrosis (ATN) patients without previous nephropathies, discharged alive from our hospital between October 77 and December 92 and followed-up until December 99 (range 7–22 years; median 7.2). Variables were analyzed at the time of the acute episode and during follow-up. In 2000–2001a clinical evaluation was made in 58 of the 82 patients still alive. Ten patients were lost to follow-up and 95 died. In 59% death was related with the disease present when the ATN developed. Kaplan–Meir survival curve showed 89, 67, 50, and 40% at 1, 5, 10, and 15 years, respectively, after discharge. Survival curves were significantly better (log-rank P