A Novel Assessment of Vascular Regions Using an Intraoperative Near-Infrared Fluorescence

The risk of complications and transplant renal function increases in multiple arterial renal transplantations compared with single arterial renal transplantations. Even when multiple arteries are involved, with the introduction of laparoscopic nephrectomy, I mainly choose the left side kidney. Therefore, the number of renal artery reconstructions is increasing, and simultaneous imaging of arterial rebuilding during the donor nephrectomy is important.

Between 2006 and 2015, we performed 132 living donor kidney transplantations at our center and analyzed 32 cases that were diagnosed pre- and intraoperatively.

We compared the single renal artery (SRA) and multiple renal arteries (MRA) groups and analyzed the number of renal arteries, reconstruction methods, donor and recipient ages, sex, total ischemic times, and 1-month serum creatinine values.

In the MRA and SRA groups, the average recipient age was 52.3 and 47.0 years, respectively, while the average donor age was 52.9 and 53.1 years, respectively. In SRA and MRA groups, total ischemic time (TIT) was 96.1 and 143.6 min (P < .01). Serum creatinine level 1 month post-transplantation was 1.54 and 1.25, respectively (P < .001). Here we experienced 12 cases of living renal donor nephrectomy with multiple vessels in which the vascular supply territory was first assessed in April 2013 using an intraoperative near-infrared fluorescence camera system. In addition, regarding TIT, it is possible to shorten surgery by using individual anastomosis and ligation.

By managing multiple donors; arteries by nephrectomy, it is possible to improve kidney transplantation results.