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  ACUTE KIDNEY INJURY

Abnormal saline and the history of intravenous fluids

Nature Reviews Nephrology volume 14, pages 358–360 (2018)Cite this article

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Two new clinical trials together involving nearly 30,000 patients support previous observational evidence that the most common solution used for intravenous fluid therapy in the world is associated with kidney damage. Both trials found that 0.9% saline was inferior to solutions with more physiological chloride concentrations and resulted in greater rates of major adverse kidney events.

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Fig. 1: The effects of intravenous fluids on the properties of plasma.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    John A. Kellum

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  1. John A. Kellum
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Correspondence to John A. Kellum.

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Competing interests

J.A.K. has received consulting fees and grant support from Baxter for unrelated research. J.A.K. is also a co-investigator for the Balanced Solution versus Saline in Intensive Care Study (BaSICS) (NCT02875873).

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Kellum, J.A. Abnormal saline and the history of intravenous fluids. Nat Rev Nephrol 14, 358–360 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41581-018-0008-4

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