Association of intraoperative hypotension and postoperative acute kidney injury after adrenalectomy for pheochromocytoma: a retrospective cohort analysis

Perioperative acute kidney injury (AKI) has been one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality for surgical patients. Pheochromocytoma is a rare, catecholamine-secreting neuroendocrine neoplasm characterized by typical long-term hypertension that needs surgical resection. Our objective was to determine whether intraoperative mean arterial pressures (MAPs) less than 65 mmHg are associated with postoperative AKI after elective adrenalectomy in patients with pheochromocytoma.

We performed a retrospective review of patients undergoing adrenalectomy for pheochromocytoma between 1991 and 2019 at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China. Two intraoperative phases, before and after tumor resection, were recognized based on distinctly different hemodynamic characteristics. The authors evaluated the association between AKI and each blood pressure exposure in these two phases. The association between the time spent under different absolute and relative MAP thresholds and AKI was then evaluated adjusting for potential confounding variables.

We enrolled 560 cases with 48 patients who developed AKI postoperatively. The baseline and intraoperative characteristics were similar in both groups. Though time-weighted average MAP was not associated with postoperative AKI during the whole operation (OR 1.38; 95% CI, 0.95–2.00; P = 0.087) and before tumor resection phase (OR 0.83; 95% CI, 0.65–1.05; P = 0.12), both time-weighted MAP and time-weighted percentage changes from baseline were strongly associated with postoperative AKI after tumor resection, with OR 3.50, 95% CI (2.25, 5.46) and 2.03, 95% CI (1.56, 2.66) in the univariable logistic analysis respectively, and with OR 2.36, 95% CI (1.46, 3.80) and 1.63, 95% CI (1.23, 2.17) after adjusting sex, surgical type (open vs. laparoscopic) and estimated blood loss in the multiple logistic analysis. At any thresholds of MAP less than 85, 80, 75, 70, and 65 mmHg, prolonged exposure was associated with increased odds of AKI.

We found a significant association between hypotension and postoperative AKI in patients with pheochromocytoma undergoing adrenalectomy in the period after tumor resection. Optimizing hemodynamics, especially blood pressure after the adrenal vessel ligation and tumor is resected, is crucial for the prevention of postoperative AKI in patient with pheochromocytoma, which could be different from general populations.