Vaccinated patients hospitalised with Covid-19 who developed acute kidney injury had better outcomes than unvaccinated patients with the same condition, according to new research on Friday.
The study led by researchers from the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) showed that patients with prior vaccination were less likely to stay on dialysis after discharge, and more likely to survive than unvaccinated patients.
Acute kidney injury, or AKI, is common among people infected with Covid, with rates running as high as 46 per cent. It can lead to a mild decrease in kidney function or, if severe enough, to dialysis.
The long-term renal and survival outcomes of these patients, however, have not been well understood. The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Kidney Medicine, suggest that Covid vaccination can reduce long-term kidney function decline and mortality risk.
“The Covid vaccine is an important intervention that can decrease the chances of developing complications from the Covid-19 infection in patients hospitalised with acute kidney injuries,” said lead author Dr. Niloofar Nobakht, Associate Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
“It is important for individuals to discuss the benefits of getting vaccinated for Covid-19 with their doctors as it can decrease the chances of needing dialysis, which can severely affect the quality of life of patients and lead to further complications including death,” Nobakht added.
The researchers analysed about 3,500 patients hospitalised with Covid between March 1, 2020, and March 30, 2022.Of those patients, 972 developed acute kidney injury, with 411 (42.3 per cent) unvaccinated and 467 (48 per cent) having received at least two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines or one dose of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.
They found that 65 (15.8 per cent) unvaccinated patients were more likely to need a type of dialysis for critically ill patients called continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) compared with 51 (10.9 per cent) vaccinated patients.
In addition, unvaccinated patients had 2.56 times the odds of needing CRRT after hospital discharge, 5.54 times the risk of dying in the hospital, and 4.78 times higher risk of dying during long-term follow-up compared with vaccinated patients.