Segmental artery clamping versus main renal artery clamping in nephron-sparing surgery: updated meta-analysis

Ischemia-reperfusion injury is harmful in partial nephrectomy (PN) in renal cell carcinoma. Choosing an appropriate surgical method is important to reduce ischemia-reperfusion injury. This study aimed to compare the effect of segmental artery clamping (SAC) and main renal artery clamping (MAC) on patients who underwent PN.

Studies from January 2008 to November 2019 were identified by an electronic search of English and Chinese databases, including PubMed, Excerpt Medica Database, Cochrane Library, Wanfang, VIP, and Chinese National Knowledge Internet, without language restriction. Two reviewers were involved in the trial. The effects on operation time (OT), warm ischemia time (WIT), length of hospital stay (LOS), blood transfusion rate, postoperative complication rate, Clavien classification (≥ 3), and positive surgery margin (PSM) were evaluated using Stata software. Standardized mean difference (SMD, for continuous data) and pooled odds ratios (for count data) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were used as effect indicators.

Thirty-two studies were included. SAC decreased the 1-week (SMD = - 0.973; 95% CI = - 1.414, - 0.532; P = 0.000), 1-month (SMD = - 0.411; 95% CI = - 0.769, - 0.053; P = 0.025), and 3-month (affected kidney: SMD = - 0.914; 95% CI = - 1.662, - 0.617; P = 0.000) percentages of postoperative changes in renal function (estimated glomerular filtration rate) between the SAC and MAC groups. Sub-group analysis showed that the SAC group had longer OT (SMD = 0.562; 95% CI = 0.252, 0.871; P = 0.000) than the MAC group. However, no differences were observed in the OT, WIT, LOS, blood transfusion rate, postoperative complication rate, Clavien classification (≥ 3), and PSM between the two groups.

SAC is superior to MAC in terms of short-term postoperative renal function recovery. The use of SAC or MAC depends on tumor size, location, surgical modality, and surgeon's judgments.