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John P. Merrill, MD

JAMA. 1970;211(2):289-291.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Acute renal failure implies acute suppression of L kidney function. Urine volume is usually less than 400 cc/24 hr, but it need not be. A well-recognized syndrome is transient decrease in renal function and increasing azotemia, with 2 to 3 liters of urine excreted per day. The broad etiologic classification of acute renal failure into three arbitrary categories, (1) prerenal, (2) renal, and (3) postrenal, is useful, particularly since many varieties of both prerenal and postrenal failure are immediately reversible if detected early.¹

Prerenal Failure

The key to the management of acute renal failure is prophylaxis. The common denominator of reversible prerenal failure is decreased plasma volume, accounting for reduction of renal blood flow and glomerular filtration rate. Its hallmark is the excretion of small volumes of concentrated urine. Loss of blood and of plasma (following body burns) and other severe depletion of extracellular fluid volume (vomiting, diarrhea) account . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston.

Footnotes
Max Harry Weil, MD, and Herbert Shubin, MD, Shock Research Unit, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, are co-editors of the Critical Care Medicine series.

Reprint requests to Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston 02115 (Dr. Merrill).

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