Arterial Embolization of Polycystic Kidneys for Heterotopic Transplantation

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of polycystic kidney embolization, performed to reduce kidney volume before heterotopic kidney transplantation, as this technique could be an alternative to pretransplant nephrectomy.

All patients who underwent pretransplant embolization of polycystic kidneys were included in a prospective register from June 2014 to February 2020. All patients underwent computed tomography (CT) scan with volumetric reconstruction (OsiriX, Bernex, Switzerland) before embolization and were then followed up at 3 and 6 months after embolization. Primary outcome was percentage of kidney volume reduction. Secondary outcomes were 30 day mortality and morbidity.

Thirty-one embolizations performed on 29 patients (medium age = 55.6; 62.1% male) were included between June 2014 and February 2020. All patients were under dialysis before embolization (9 peritoneal dialysis and 20 hemodialysis). Technical success was observed in 96.8% of cases. Mean procedural time was 65 minutes (range = 35-106 minutes) and mean length of in-hospital stay was 3.8 days (range = 3-6 days). A volume reduction allowing a kidney transplant was obtained for 28 patients (96.5%). The mean volume reduction was 39.9% (range = 6.01-68.2). The main observed complication was postembolization pain in 10 cases (32.2%). One patient needed complementary nephrectomy due to insufficient volume reduction. Twenty-three patients (79.3%) received renal transplant during follow-up with a mean delay of 19.5 month (range = 4-54).

Polycystic kidney embolization is an effective and safe minimally invasive technique. It can be proposed as the first-choice technique for kidney transplant recipients as an alternative to pretransplantation nephrectomy.