In this issue of the Journal, Priyanka and colleagues, 1 in an innovative analysis, raise awareness of the significant and hereto-underappreciated risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) following cardiac surgery. They analyzed the rates of AKI in a large multihospital cohort of 6637 patients undergoing cardiac surgery. 1 They examined the relationship between The Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) AKI stage, defined by either serum creatinine (SCr) elevation and/or urine output criteria and the rates of subsequent major adverse kidney events (MAKE) at 180 days. In this study, KDIGO AKI occurred in a staggering 81% of patients-stage 1: 21%, stage 2: 49%, and stage 3: 12%. In stark contrast, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) database reportable AKI rate occurred in only 4%, thus giving clinicians a false sense of security and accomplishment. Most impressively, patients with stage 3 AKI had a 61.3% incidence of MAKE and a 33.3% mortality by 180 days. Importantly, even patients with stage 1 AKI had a 14.9% MAKE and 6.6% mortality compared with patients with no AKI who had a 4.5% MAKE and 2.2% mortality by 180 days.