Causes Of Acute Renal Failure

Acute renal failure can be caused by several different conditions, however, the causes are often categorized as prerenal, intrinsic, and postrenal. Prerenal causes are characterized by a marked decrease in blood flow to the kidneys, while intrinsic causes are attributed to physical damage within the kidney, and postrenal cause an obstruction in fluid flow from the kidneys through the ureters, bladder, or even urethra. Some different prerenal causes include hypovolemia as a result of hemorrhage, dehydration, excessive loss of gastrointestinal fluids due to vomiting or diarrhea, or excessive loss of fluid due to a burn injury, decreased vascular filling because of anaphylactic or septic shocks, heart failure and cardiogenic shock which impairs perfusion, and decreased renal perfusion because of sepsis, vasoactive mediators, drugs, and diagnostic agents (Porth, 2009). Intrarenal failure can be caused by acute tubular necrosis which is when renal function is repressed resulting in death of the epithelial cells in the kidney. Acute tubular necrosis is a result of extended lack of oxygen supply to the kidneys, exposure to nephrotoxic drugs, heavy metals, and organic solvents, intratubular obstructions resulting from hemoglobinuria, myoglobinuria, …show more content…
G is suffering from hyponatremia with serum levels of sodium at 130 mEq/dL. In the case of Mr. G, his hyponatremia is a result of his acute renal failure. Due to the decreased function of the kidney, Mr. G is not able to get rid of as much water as he would if his kidneys were healthy (Freda & Nurko, 2010). The increase in free water throughout the body is diluting the sodium present in the serum (Grossman, 2014). Mr. G is also suffering from hyperkalemia as his potassium level is 6.5. His hyperkalemia also results from decreased renal function as a result of his acute renal failure. Because his kidneys are not sufficiently functioning, excretion of potassium is impaired and it builds up in the body (Grossman,