Background: Adequate anticoagulation is essential to achieve efficient and cost-effective continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). However, in critically ill patients with advanced liver cirrhosis, this goal is challenging because of the concomitant bleeding disorder. Therefore, the evaluation of alternative anticoagulants is necessary.
Methods: In this retrospective study, we analyzed data of 37 CRRTs in 16 critically ill patients with advanced liver cirrhosis and acute kidney injury admitted to a medical intensive care unit between 2006 and 2008 and included patients undergoing CRRT with either single doses of antithrombin (AT) or continuous low-dose heparin as a sole anticoagulant. The primary outcome measure was lifetime of single CRRT filters.
Results: Data were available for 13 CRRT filters for patients anticoagulated with single doses of AT (n = 6), and 24 CRRT filters for patients anticoagulated continuously with low-dose heparin (n = 10). Means of single-filter lifetimes were significantly higher in the AT group compared with the heparin group (45 ± 29 hours [95% confidence interval 27-62 hours] vs 26 ± 23 hours [95% confidence interval 16-36 hours]; P = 0.03), whereas mean filter lifetimes of individual patients were comparable (median [25th-75th percentile] 30 hours [21-59 hours] vs 28 hours [17-70 hours]; P = 0.79).
Conclusions: Our data suggest that anticoagulation with single doses of AT may be an alternative to continuously administered low-dose heparin in critically ill patients with advanced liver cirrhosis during CRRT. However, additional controlled trials are necessary to confirm our findings.