World Kidney Day 2013 theme is “Acute Kidney Injury (AKI)”, a sudden reduction in the kidney function. This can happen due to several reasons like reduced blood supply to the kidney caused by blood loss or dehydration like gastroenteritis etc. Drugs, specially pain killers can also reduce the kidney function suddenly. In hospitals and ICU’s drop in blood pressure due to any reason including infections can affect the kidney suddenly and produce AKI. It is essential to recognise AKI promptly because there may not be enough time to save the patient. If recognized promptly and the underlying condition is treated, the kidney function can reverse fully. So, AKI is both potentially reversible and fatal. The message for this year World Kidney days is to recognise the entity of AKI since people are more aware of only Chronic Kidney Disease which is slowly progressive, irreversible, requiring permanent dialysis and kidney transplantation. Actor Arvind Swamy released the documentary on AKI. Crazy Mohan released the booklet “Save your kidney, only you can” in Tamil and Prof. S.K. Rajan released the English version of the booklet.
