Histologically proven acute tubular necrosis in a series of 27 ICU patients

Abstract Purpose Since renal biopsy is rarely performed for identifying acute tubular necrosis in ICU patients, there is little information on the real histopathological abnormalities observed in such situations. Materials and methods The clinical data of 27 patients with a confirmed diagnostic of acute tubular necrosis issued from two recent series gathering 125 patients who had renal biopsy during their ICU stay were reviewed. They were divided into sepsis (n = 14) and non-sepsis (n = 13) groups. Histopathologic lesions were reanalyzed and semi-quantitatively graded by a pathologist without knowledge of clinical characteristics of the patients. Results SAPS2 and SOFA scores were identical in the two groups. Half of the patients had neither sepsis nor shock. The histopathological score was higher in the septic than in the non-septic group: 9 [IC; 9–11] vs 7 [IC 5.25–8.75]; p = 0.01. There was no striking histopathological difference between septic and non-septic patients. However, the cytotoxic edema score was higher (3 [1; 3] vs 1 [0; 1]; p = 0.006), and interstitial infiltration with polymorphonuclears was more frequent (p = 0.02) in septic than in non-septic patients. Conclusions Septic and non-septic ICU patients with ATN had similar histopathologic features but lesions were more severe than in septic than in non-septic patients.