The incidence, risk factors and in-hospital mortality of acute kidney injury in patients after abdominal aortic aneurysm repair surgery

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a severe complication associated with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair. In this study, we evaluated the incidence, risk factors and in-hospital mortality of AKI in patients after the AAA repair surgery.

A total of 314 Chinese AAA patients who underwent endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) or open aneurysm repair (OPEN) were enrolled in this study. AKI was diagnosed according to the 2012 KDIGO criteria. Logistic regression modeling was used to explore risk factors of AKI, while risk factors associated with in-hospital mortality in AKI patients were investigated using Cox proportional hazards model and Kaplan-Meier analysis, respectively. Multicollinearity analysis was performed to identify the collinearity between the variables before logistic regression analysis and Cox proportional hazards analysis.

Among 314 patients, 94 (29.9%) developed AKI after AAA repair surgery. Severity of AKI and ruptured AAA were independently associated with an increase in in-hospital mortality in AKI patients after AAA repair. Kaplan-Meier analysis identified severity of AKI as being negatively associated with hospital survival in AKI patients. Risk factors associated with AKI included cardiovascular disease (OR 3.169, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.538 to 6.527, P = 0.002), decreased eGFR (OR 0.965, 95%CI 0.954 to 0.977, P < 0.001), ruptured AAA (OR 2.717, 95%CI 1.320 to 5.592, P = 0.007), renal artery involvement (OR 2.903, 95%CI 1.219 to 6.912, P = 0.016) and OPEN (OR 2.094, 95%CI 1.048 to 4.183, P = 0.036). Further subgroup analysis identified OPEN as an important risk factor of AKI in ruptured AAA patients but not in ruptured AAA patients. The incidence of AKI was significantly lower in EVAR than in OPEN (27.1% vs. 42.8%) and, similarly lower in nonruptured AAA than in ruptured AAA (26.2% vs. 48.1%).

One-third of AAA patients developed AKI after repair surgery. Severity of AKI was associated with reduced survival rate in AAA patients who developed postoperative AKI. Decreased preoperative creatinine clearance, cardiovascular disease, ruptured AAA and OPEN were independent risk factors for postoperative AKI in all 314 AAA patients. Although a lower rate of incident AKI was observed in EVAR compared with OPEN, subgroup analysis of ruptured AAA versus nonruptured AAA showed that EVAR was an independent protective factor for AKI only in ruptured AAA patients but not in nonruptured AAA patients.