Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a sudden decline in kidney function. This leads to the buildup of waste products like urea and creatinine in the blood and causes imbalances in fluids and electrolytes. In critically ill patients, AKI is a serious complication associated with high rates of illness and death. It is common in the intensive care unit (ICU) because patients there are exposed to multiple risk factors such as severe infections (sepsis), medications that can harm the kidneys (nephrotoxins), and unstable blood flow (hemodynamic instability). The KDIGO (Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes) guidelines provide a standard definition of AKI based on increases in serum creatinine and decreases in urine output.