Risk of acute kidney injury and mortality in patients vaccinated against COVID-19

Several types of vaccines have been developed to manage the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Although COVID-19 vaccines have demonstrated reasonable efficacy, cases of cardiac, vascular and renal complications have been observed. Herein, the association between COVID-19 vaccination and subsequent renal dysfunction and mortality was analyzed using data collected from TriNetX. A retrospective cohort study was conducted of patients vaccinated against COVID-19. After exclusion and matching, a total of 1,454,791 patients each were included in the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. The primary outcome measured was renal dysfunction and mortality. In total, 15,809 and 11,801 of AKI, and 1,513 and 697 of dialysis treatment were observed in the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups, respectively. After one year, the vaccinated group exhibited significantly higher incidences of AKI (HR: 1.20, 95% CI:1.18-1.23), and dialysis (HR: 1.84, 95% CI:1.68-2.01) than the unvaccinated group. The vaccinated group exhibited significant lower incidences of mortality (HR: 0.88, 95% CI:0.85-0.91) than the unvaccinated group. The cumulative probability of AKI and dialysis was significantly higher in the vaccinated group than the unvaccinated group. In conclusion, COVID-19 vaccination was associated with a higher risk of developing acute kidney injury, but lower rate of mortality.