Acute renal failure as severe malaria complication in Lubumbashi: Management and follow-up in an under-equipped setting

Purpose Acute renal failure (ARF) or acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the major criteria for the severity of malaria according to WHO. The objective was to determine the frequency as well as to evaluate the management and follow-up of ARF during malaria in children in Lubumbashi. Material and methods This is a descriptive cross-sectional study over 48 months (January 1st, 2016 to December 30th, 2019) carried out at the pediatric service of the University Clinics of Lubumbashi. All children with an ARF with a positive thick blood smear were included in the study. Data were analyzed with SPSS 19 software. Results During this period, 910 patients (49.1%) were admitted for malaria. Among them, 14 patients, i.e. an intra-hospital prevalence of 0.78%, of which 6 boys (42.9%) and 8 girls (57.1%) had ARF. The mean age is 7.9±3.5 years. The serum creatinine level was between 0.54 and 15.2 mg/dL with a mean of 5.7 mg/dL. Kidney dialysis was only effective in 3 patients (21.4%) and diuretics were given 100% in all children. The mean length of stay was 13.4±8.7 days (range: 1 day and 18 days). Mortality was 21.4%. Conclusion The present study shows that ARF in childhood malaria in Lubumbashi is infrequent but of high mortality in our environment with limited resources where care is lacking and monitoring difficult.