Prior Covid-19 vaccination proved beneficial for acute kidney injury patients — Study
Vaccinated patients hospitalised with Covid-19 who developed acute kidney injury had better outcomes than unvaccinated patients
Published on Jun 13, 2025
By IANS
- NEW DELHI — Vaccinated patients hospitalised with Covid-19 who developed acute
kidney injury had better outcomes than unvaccinated patients with the same
condition, according to new research on Friday.
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- The study led by researchers from the University of
California-Los Angeles (UCLA) showed that patients with prior vaccination were
less likely to stay on dialysis after discharge, and more likely to survive
than unvaccinated patients.
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- Acute kidney injury, or AKI, is common among people
infected with Covid, with rates running as high as 46 per cent. It can lead to
a mild decrease in kidney function or, if severe enough, to dialysis. The
long-term renal and survival outcomes of these patients, however, have not been
well understood.
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- The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal
Kidney Medicine, suggest that Covid vaccination can reduce long-term kidney
function decline and mortality risk.
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- “The Covid vaccine is an important intervention that can
decrease the chances of developing complications from the Covid-19 infection in
patients hospitalised with acute kidney injuries,” said lead author Dr.
Niloofar Nobakht, Associate Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA.
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- “It is important for individuals to discuss the benefits
of getting vaccinated for Covid-19 with their doctors as it can decrease the
chances of needing dialysis, which can severely affect the quality of life of
patients and lead to further complications including death,” Nobakht added.
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- The researchers analysed about 3,500 patients
hospitalised with Covid between March 1, 2020, and March 30, 2022.
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- Of those patients, 972 developed acute kidney injury,
with 411 (42.3 per cent) unvaccinated and 467 (48 per cent) having received at
least two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines or one dose of Johnson
& Johnson’s vaccine.
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- They found that 65 (15.8 per cent) unvaccinated patients
were more likely to need a type of dialysis for critically ill patients called
continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) compared with 51 (10.9 per cent)
vaccinated patients.
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- In addition, unvaccinated patients had 2.56 times the
odds of needing CRRT after hospital discharge, 5.54 times the risk of dying in
the hospital, and 4.78 times higher risk of dying during long-term follow-up
compared with vaccinated patients.
