Risk of renal insufficiency in African-Americans after radical nephrectomy for kidney cancer

We conducted a retrospective review to evaluate the change in serum creatinine in an African-American population undergoing radical nephrectomy.

Race, and preoperative and follow-up creatinine data were extracted from the medical records of all patients who underwent radical nephrectomy performed by a single surgeon. Patients were classified as African-American or black and non-African-American. The non-African-American group included Caucasian, Asian, and Hispanic patients.

A total of 22 African-American and 19 non-African-American patients were studied. Mean preoperative creatinine was 1.3 mg/dL in African-American patients and 1.1 in non-African-American patients (P = 0.07). Average follow-up creatinine was 1.7 in the African-Americans, with a mean change in creatinine of 0.4, compared to the non-African-Americans, in which mean follow-up creatinine was 1.3 (P = 0.004) with a mean change of 0.2 (P = 0.048). Average follow-up creatinine was higher in African-American hypertensive (2.0 mg/dl) compared with non-African-American hypertensive patients (1.4 mg/dl; P = 0.002). Average change in creatinine was also higher in African-American hypertensive versus non-African-American hypertensive patients (0.6 vs. 0.2 mg/dl, P = 0.048). There were no racial differences seen in normotensive cases. Average follow-up was 9.7 months for African-American and 11.6 months for non-African-American patients.

Our data indicate that race may be a significant risk factor for renal deterioration after radical nephrectomy.