Acute kidney injury (AKI), a common and costly complication among hospitalized patients, represents a major public health concern.1 It is crucial to understand recent epidemiologic trends of AKI to effectively study and implement strategies aimed at reducing its burden. Although the 2012 guideline from KDIGO2 placed emphasis on the prevention and recognition of AKI among hospitalized patients, studies using health care administrative data continue to suggest increasing AKI incidence.3-5 However, reliably measuring trends in AKI incidence is challenging.