Remote Ischaemic Preconditioning Reduces Kidney Injury Biomarkers in Patients Undergoing Open Surgical Lower Limb Revascularisation: A Randomised Trial
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 28, 2025
Technical Refinement of a Bilateral Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion Mouse Model for Acute Kidney Injury Research
Published on: November 3, 2023
Teele Kasepalu1,2, Karl Kuusik2,3, Urmas Lepner1,4
1Department of Surgery, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Tartu, Estonia.
Background And Aims:
Perioperative kidney injury affects 12.7% of patients undergoing lower limb revascularisation surgery. Remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC) is a potentially protective procedure against organ damage and consists of short nonlethal episodes of ischaemia. The main objective of this substudy was to evaluate the effect of RIPC on kidney function, inflammation, and oxidative stress in patients undergoing open surgical lower limb revascularisation. Materials and Methods. This is a subgroup analysis of a randomised, sham-controlled, double-blinded, single-centre study. A RIPC or a sham procedure was performed noninvasively along with preparation for anaesthesia in patients undergoing open surgical lower limb revascularisation. The RIPC protocol consisted of 4 cycles of 5 minutes of ischaemia, with 5 minutes of reperfusion between every episode. Blood was collected for analysis preoperatively, 2, 8, and 24 hours after surgery, and urine was collected preoperatively and 24 hours after surgery.
Results:
Data of 56 patients were included in the analysis. Serum creatinine, cystatin C, and beta-2 microglobulin increased, and eGFR decreased across all time points significantly more in the sham group than in the RIPC group (p = 0.021, p = 0.021, p = 0.021, p = 0.021, p = 0.021.
Conclusions:
Our finding of reduced release of kidney injury biomarkers may indicate the renoprotective effect of RIPC in patients undergoing open surgical lower limb revascularisation. The trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02689414.
