Acute kidney injury is surprisingly common and a powerful predictor of mortality in surgical sepsis.

Background Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common and often catastrophic complication in hospitalized patients, however the impact of AKI in surgical sepsis remains unknown. We utilized RIFLE (Risk-Injury-Failure-Loss-End stage) consensus criteria to define the incidence of AKI in surgical sepsis and characterize the impact of AKI on patient morbidity and mortality.