How to evaluate acute kidney injury in the kidney transplant patient?
- Careful evaluation is mandatory when analyzing the baseline kidney function and assessing the serum creatinine (Scr).
- The ideal baseline serum creatinine is based on the most recent trend whenever the patient was in a steady state.
- The most critical parameter is the time after transplantation which helps in sorting through the differential diagnosis of acute kidney injury.
- The most important differential changes when the patient is a recent transplant and could have surgical complications, such as a urine leak in the first few months as opposed to a patient who has undergone kidney transplantation for several years in whom the urine leak is less likely.
