Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy for Acute Kidney Injury by Cooling Blood

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in intensive care unit (ICU) patients and is associated with longer hospital stays and worse survival. The mortality rate of critically ill patients in the ICU who receive renal replacement therapy for AKI ranges between 50-80%, cardiovascular disease being the second largest cause of death. A previous pilot study from the investigator's group showed that myocardial stunning occurs in AKI patients during continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) and may explain the high cardiovascular mortality in this population. In the chronic intermittent dialysis setting, mild dialysate cooling was shown to improve intradialytic hemodynamic stability and prevent myocardial stunning. The aim of this study is to find out whether cooling the blood in the CRRT circuit is an effective intervention to prevent myocardial stunning in AKI patients undergoing CRRT and improve patient outcomes.