WEDNESDAY, June 18, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- For patients hospitalized with COVID-19 infection and acute kidney injury (AKI), those who are unvaccinated have worse outcomes in terms of kidney function and mortality, according to a study published online June 17 in Kidney Medicine.
Niloofar Nobakht, M.D., from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, and colleagues conducted a single-center cohort study involving 972 adult patients admitted with COVID-19 infection and AKI from March 1 to March 30, 2022. Of these, 42.3 and 48.0 percent had not received a dose of a U.S.-approved COVID-19 vaccine and had completed the primary vaccine series, respectively.
The researchers found that compared with vaccinated patients, unvaccinated patients had a higher rate of requiring continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) during their hospitalization (15.8 versus 10.9 percent). There was a significant association for CRRT during hospitalization with in-hospital death and long-term follow-up death (adjusted hazard ratios, 2.82 and 2.44, respectively). Compared with those who were vaccinated, unvaccinated patients had 2.56-fold higher odds of being discharged on renal replacement therapy. In an adjusted multivariable analysis, significantly increased in-hospital mortality and long-term follow-up mortality were seen for those who were unvaccinated versus those who were vaccinated (adjusted hazard ratios, 5.54 and 4.78, respectively).
"The COVID-19 vaccine is an important intervention that can decrease the chances of developing complications from the COVID-19 infection in patients hospitalized with acute kidney injuries," Nobakht said in a statement.