My father was admitted last night with acute kidney failure due to severe dehydration. He had a partial gastrectomy (stomach cancer) in January and has been unable to keep any food/liquid down. He has had horrible projectile vomiting. His creatinine was 4.9 and his BUN was 55 upon arrival. This morning the numbers improved slightly to 3.6. What does this mean? The doctors don't seem too concerned; should we be?

They have given him about 5 bags of fluid and he has only urinated about 350cc in 24 hours. Also when he urinates; he urinates in spurts not a steady stream...TMI! Is this normal for kidney failure and what will the next step be?

Please help me!

There are two different types of kidney failure: acute and chronic. Chronic occurs with disease and take a long time. The kidney damage is gradual and recovery does not occur. Acute happens all of a sudden and is not long term. In many cases, the situation can reverse itself with treatment. If the docs aren't too worried that probably means that they feel he has an excellent chance of regaining his kidney function.

Cora