Year in review 2009: Critical Care--nephrology.

We summarize original research in the field of critical care nephrology accepted or published in 2009 in Critical Care or, when considered relevant or directly linked to this research, in other journals. Four main topics have been identified for a rapid overview: (a) post-surgical acute kidney injury (AKI); (b) timing of renal replacement therapy (RRT): different authors examined this critical issue of RRT in different settings (post-surgical patients, burned patients, and intensive care unit patients); (c) DoReMi (Dose Response Multicentre International) and other important surveys on dialysis dose and management; and (d) pediatric AKI and RRT: interest in this last topic is increasing, and studies on biomarkers, complications of pediatric dialysis, and application of RRT to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation are discussed.