Association between the use of loop diuretics and prognosis in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury: a retrospective propensity score-matched cohort study.

Background: The role of loop diuretics in patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) is controversial. This study examined the association between the use of loop diuretics and prognosis in critically ill patients with AKI.

Methods: This study used data from the medical information mart for the intensive care IV database. Adult critically ill patients with AKI were included in the analysis. Patients were partitioned into two groups based on their use of loop diuretics in the ICU, and potentially confounding variables between the two groups were balanced using propensity score matching (PSM). We used time-dependent Cox proportional hazards regression, logistic regression, and Hodges-Lehman estimator to assess the impact of loop diuretics on all-cause mortality, renal replacement therapy (RRT) use, and the length of hospital stay, respectively.

Results: This study included a cohort of 19,671 patients. After PSM, both groups consisted of 6200 patients. The use of loop diuretics was associated with a lower risk of in-hospital mortality (HR, 0.672; 95% CI 0.597-0.757; P < 0.001), lower in-ICU mortality (HR, 0.375; 95% CI 0.315-0.446; P < 0.001), and lower odds of in-hospital RRT (OR, 0.472; 95% CI 0.400-0.555; P < 0.001). A sensitivity analysis using the original cohort (HR, 0.624; 95% CI 0.561-0.693; P < 0.001) and weighted cohort (HR, 0.654; 95% CI 0.582-0.736; P < 0.001) also demonstrated lower in-hospital all-cause mortality.

Conclusions: The use of loop diuretics is associated with a substantial reduction in mortality among critically ill patients with AKI.