Improved Survival from Acute Renal Failure after Treatment with Intravenous Essential L-Amino Acids and Glucose

Abstract

The effect of intravenous essential l-amino acids and hypertonic glucose ("renal-failure fluid") in the treatment of acute renal failure was evaluated in a prospective, double-blind clinical trial. The population of 53 adult patients had sustained a presumable renal insult within 10 days before inclusion in the study. The control group was treated with glucose alone. The two groups were adequately randomized for age, renal diagnosis and renal dysfunction at the time of the study. Twenty-one of 28 patients receiving renal-failure fluid, as compared with 11 of 25 given glucose alone, recovered from these episodes of acute renal failure (p = 0.02). These survival differences were more apparent in higher-risk patients, including those with oliguric acute renal failure, requiring dialysis, and those in whom pneumonia, generalized sepsis or major gastrointestinal hemorrhage developed. Analysis of indexes of renal function suggested more rapid recovery from acute renal failure in patients treated with renal-failure fluid. These data suggest that treatment of such patients with this solution significantly improves survival, which may be related to shorter overall duration of renal dysfunction.