Conference Abstract | Volume 8, Abstract ELIC2025254 (Oral 028) | Published:  15 Aug 2025

Early Dialysis and innovations for better outcome in Lassa fever patients with acute kidney injury

Christian Ehigbor Erohubie1, Mojeed Rafiu1, Ndidi Akerele1, Steve Izevbekhai1, Sulaiman Ahmed1, Cyril Erameh1, Till Omesan1

1Irrua specialist Teaching Hospital, Irrua, Nigeria 

&Corresponding author: Christian Ehigbor Erohubie, Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Irrua, Nigeria. Email: erohubic@yahoo.com

Received: 24 Mar 2025, Accepted: 09 Jul 2025, Published: 15 Aug 2025

Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology

This is part of the Proceedings of the ECOWAS 2nd Lassa fever International Conference in Abidjan, September 8 – 11, 2025

Keywords: Lassa fever, Hemodialysis, Acute Kidney Injury

©Christian Ehigbor Erohubie et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cite this article: Christian Ehigbor Erohubie et al., Early dialysis and innovations for better outcome in Lassa fever patients with acute kidney injury. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2025;8(Conf Proc 5):00028. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO5-00028

Introduction

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is recognized complication of Lassa fever (LF) and is associated with poor outcomes. To improve prognosis, Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH) implemented a multifaceted approach in the management of patients with AKI. This included reduction in the threshold for Hemodialysis (HD), cautious use of heparin and pre-dialysis optimization of patient’s status by transfusion with blood transfusion and blood products, inotropic support, correction of dehydration and hypoglycemia, appropriate catheter use. This study reviewed the outcome of critically ill LF patients with AKI who had Hemodialysis during the 2023 outbreak at ISTH.

Methods

This was a retrospective observational study. The demographic, clinical and laboratory data of 19 critically ill LF patients diagnosed with AKI during the January to May 2023 outbreak were extracted from medical records and analyzed using IBM SPSS version 21.

Results

A total of 19 patients with mean age 44.2±14.8 years met the criteria for HD. Majority (68.0%) were males. A total of 70 HD sessions were performed with an average of 3.69 session per patient. Four patients (21.1%) presented late and received only one session of HD with 100% mortality. Fifteen patients (78.9%) received two or more sessions HD with three mortalities (15.7%). Disequilibrium syndrome and bleeding diathesis were observed in two patients (10.5%). There was no incidence of deep vein thrombosis.

Conclusion

Early initiation of HD in LF-associated AKI appeared to improve survival. Factors contributing to poor outcomes included delayed presentation, intradialysis complications and multi-organ failure. Caution in the use of heparin, and careful catheter selection may contribute to favorable outcomes observed during the outbreak.

 
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