Acute kidney injury in Hemiscorpius lepturus scorpion stung children: Risk factors and clinical features

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is frequently seen in Hemiscorpius lepturus scorpion stung children. We have previously reported several victims with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with a thrombospondin type 1 motif, member 13 deficiency. Hence, we conducted this study to identify predictive factors and clinical features of AKI in H. lepturus scorpion stung patients. We included all 215 H. lepturus scorpion stung children with no previous renal diseases in two groups (with and without AKI) and compared them based on their clinical and laboratory findings. AKI was found in 27.4% of patients, they were significantly younger and with lower body weight (P = 0.006, P = 0.011, respectively). There was a significant difference between groups with and without AKI in findings such as fever (P = 0.003), hypertension (P <0.001), hemolytic anemia (P <0.001), thrombocytopenia (P <0.001), massive proteinuria (P <0.001), hemoglobinuria (P <0.001), pyuria (P <0.001), and hematuria (P = 0.004). HUS was in 5.5% and disseminated intravascular coagulation in 14.6% which had a significant association with AKI (P <0.001).There were several independent predictors for AKI in a multivariate regression model including thrombocytopenia (P = 0.002), pyuria (P = 0.01), proteinuria (P =0.01), and fever (P = 0.02). Hemodialysis was performed in four patients but kidney function improved in all patients and there was no findings of renal impairment after three months follow-up. We found several predictors for AKI in children following H. lepturus scorpion sting including younger age, delay in receiving medical care, pigmenturia, microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, proteinuria, and pyuria.