Does race impact functional outcomes in patients undergoing robotic partial nephrectomy?

The role of race on functional outcomes after robotic partial nephrectomy (RPN) is still a matter of debate. We aimed to evaluate the clinical and pathologic characteristics of African American (AA) and Caucasian patients who underwent RPN and analyzed the association between race and functional outcomes.

Data was obtained from a multi-institutional database of patients who underwent RPN in 6 institutions in the USA. We identified 999 patients with complete clinical data. Sixty-three patients (6.3%) were AA, and each patient was matched (1:3) to Caucasian patients by age at surgery, gender, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) and renal score. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate predictors of acute kidney injury (AKI). Kaplan-Meier method and multivariable semiparametric Cox regression analyses were performed to assess prevalence and predictors of significant eGFR reduction during follow-up.

Overall, 252 patients were included. AA were more likely to have hypertension (58.7% vs. 35.4%, P=0.001), even after 1:3 match. Overall 42 patients (16.7%) developed AKI after surgery and 35 patients (13.9%) developed significant eGFR reduction between 3 and 15 months after RAPN. On multivariate analysis, AA race did not emerge as a significant factor for predicting AKI (OR 1.10, P=0.8). On Cox multivariable analysis, only AKI was found to be associated with significant eGFR reduction between 3 and 15 months after RAPN (HR 2.49, P=0.019).

Although African American patients were more likely to have hypertension, renal function outcomes of robotic partial nephrectomies were not significantly different when stratified by race. However, future studies with larger cohorts are necessary to validate these findings.