Oliguria

Excerpt

Oliguria is defined as urinary output less than 400 ml per day or less than 20 ml per hour and is one of the earliest signs of impaired renal function. It had been described early in the literature when Hippocrates identified the prognostic importance of the urinary output. It was in the second century that Galen proposed its significance to indicate renal function. Later on, renal failure accompanied by oliguria was described by Heberden as ‘ischuria renalis.’ According to the Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative group, a patient with urinary output <0.3 ml/kg/h for at least 24 hours can be defined to be oliguric.