Surveillance of drugs that most frequently induce acute kidney injury: A pharmacovigilance approach.

WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: Acute kidney injury (AKI) often occurs in hospitalized patients, and it is an increasing problem worldwide. Recently, clinical studies have shown that there is a strong association between drug-induced AKI and poor outcomes, including the progression of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease; however, limited data are available on drug-induced AKI. The purpose of this study was to clarify the rank-order of the association of all drugs with AKI using a spontaneous reporting system database.

METHODS: We performed a retrospective pharmacovigilance disproportionality analysis using the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report (JADER) database. Adverse event reports submitted to Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency between April 2004 and January 2017 were analysed.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Based on 5 195 890 reports of all adverse events, we obtained 12 964 reports of AKI caused by all drugs and calculated the reporting odds ratio (ROR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for AKI. The most frequently reported drugs were valaciclovir hydrochloride (ROR, 24.88; 95% CI: 23.1-26.8), eldecalcitol (ROR, 14.23; 95% CI, 11.68-17.33), edaravone (ROR, 14.03; 95% CI, 11.76-16.75), acyclovir (ROR, 11.17; 95% CI, 9.55-13.1), piperacillin-tazobactam (ROR, 9.23; 95% CI, 7.72-11.0), and spironolactone (ROR, 7.36; 95% CI, 6.12-8.86).

WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION: A comprehensive study using a pharmacovigilance database enabled us to identify the drugs that most frequently induce AKI, raising physicians' awareness of the drugs in use for patients with potentially decreased renal function.