Efficacy of cold renal perfusion protection for open complex aortic aneurysm repair: a meta-analysis

Cold renal perfusion (CRP) with 4°C crystalloid fluids has been described as a method to reduce renal injury during open surgical repair of complex aortic aneurysms (cAAs) (those requiring at least a suprarenal clamp site). We performed a meta-analysis to ascertain whether CRP improves kidney-related outcomes after open surgical cAA repair.

Patients of any age or gender who had undergone open surgical repair of cAAs were included. Primary outcomes were the presence of postoperative kidney injury, the need for dialysis and mortality related to kidney injury. We compared patients who were treated with any intraoperative CRP strategy to a control population without CRP. We used a fixed-effects model to analyze derived odds ratios (ORs) and assess heterogeneity. We performed risk of bias analysis to identify potential confounding elements.

Among the 935 studies screened, 5 primary articles met the inclusion criteria. Cold renal perfusion significantly reduced postoperative acute kidney injury (OR 0.46 [95% confidence interval 0.32-0.68], Z = 3.98, p = 0.001). Only 1 study included data for the other primary outcomes. The data were considered homogeneous, with Cochrane Q = 0.23 and I 2 of 0%.

This meta-analysis showed reduced postoperative acute kidney injury with the use of CRP during open cAA repair. A prospective randomized controlled trial to perform further subgroup analysis and research the various types of CRP solutions may be warranted to identify further possible benefits.