ATLANTA—Acute kidney injury (AKI) rarely occurs in the immediate postoperative period following nephrectomy, according to a study presented at the American Urological Association 2012 annual meeting.

Using the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) patient data from 2005 to 2009, Brian Le, MD, of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and colleagues identified 2,435 patients who underwent partial nephrectomy or radical nephrectomy without preoperative diagnosis of renal failure. Only 58 patients (2.4%) had AKI within 30 days after surgery.

Compared with patients without AKI, patients with AKI had significantly longer operation times (218 vs. 183 minutes), were significantly more likely to develop hypertension that required medication, and significantly more likely to have undergone percutaneous coronary intervention, said investigator Amanda C. Chi, MD, who presented study findings.

Although the AKI group had higher preoperative creatinine levels, more blood transfusions, a greater number of men, and a longer smoking history, none of these differences were significant.

The investigators defined AKI as a postoperative rise in serum creatinine greater than 2 mg/dL, development of renal failure, or need for dialysis.

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