Influence of the type of anaesthesia on acute kidney injury after nephrectomy: a randomised controlled trial

Acute kidney injury develops frequently after nephrectomy, causing increased hospital duration of stay and mortality. Both propofol and volatile anaesthetic agents are thought to have renoprotective effects. We investigated whether the type of maintenance anaesthetic (propofol or desflurane) affected the incidence of acute kidney injury after nephrectomy.

This single-centre, randomised controlled trial enrolled adult patients with renal cell carcinoma undergoing nephrectomy. In patients allocated to the propofol group, anaesthesia was induced and maintained using a target-controlled infusion of propofol. In patients allocated to the desflurane group, anaesthesia was induced with a bolus of thiopental and maintained with desflurane. Both groups received a target-controlled infusion of remifentanil during surgery. The primary outcome was the incidence of acute kidney injury within 7 postoperative days based on the serum creatinine component of the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes criteria.

We analysed 317 patients (median (IQR [range]) age 62 (52-70 [26-85] y); 221 (70%) men). Postoperative AKI developed in 79 (25%) patients: 43 (27%) in the propofol group and 36 (23%) in the desflurane group (absolute risk difference (95%CI) 4.6 (-4.9-14.0%), p = 0.347). The severity of kidney injury was stage 1 in 76 patients, stage 2 in two patients and stage 3 in one patient.

The type of anaesthetic maintenance drug (propofol vs. desflurane) did not affect the incidence of acute kidney injury after nephrectomy. Future research might be better directed towards investigating other potentially modifiable risk factors for postoperative acute kidney injury in this patient population.