Epidemiology, Outcomes, and Management of Acute Kidney Injury in the Vascular Surgery Patient

Objective: Conventional clinical wisdom has often been nihilistic regarding the prevention and management of acute kidney injury (AKI), despite its being a frequent and morbid complication associated with both increased mortality and cost. Recent developments have shown that AKI is not inevitable and that changes in management of patients can reduce both the incidence and morbidity of perioperative AKI. The purpose of this narrative review was to review the epidemiology and outcomes of AKI in patients undergoing vascular surgery using current consensus definitions, to discuss some of the novel emerging risk stratification and prevention techniques relevant to the vascular surgery patient, and to describe a standardized perioperative pathway for the prevention of AKI after vascular surgery.

Methods: We performed a critical review of the literature on AKI in the vascular surgery patient using the PubMed and MEDLINE databases and Google Scholar through September 2017 using web-based search engines. We also searched the guidelines and publications available online from the organizations Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes and the Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative. The search terms used included acute kidney injury, AKI, epidemiology, outcomes, prevention, therapy, and treatment.

Results: The reported epidemiology and outcomes associated with AKI have been evolving since the publication of consensus criteria that allow accurate identification of mild and moderate AKI. The incidence of AKI after major vascular surgery using current criteria is as high as 49%, although there are significant differences, depending on the type of procedure performed. Many tools have become available to assess and to stratify the risk for AKI and to use that information to prevent AKI in the surgical patient. We describe a standardized clinical assessment and management pathway for vascular surgery patients, incorporating current risk assessment and preventive strategies to prevent AKI and to decrease its complications. Patients without any risk factors can be managed in a perioperative fast-track pathway. Those patients with positive risk factors are tested for kidney stress using the urinary biomarker TIMP-2•IGFBP7, and care is then stratified according to the result. Management follows current Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes guidelines.

Conclusions: AKI is a common postoperative complication among vascular surgery patients and has a significant impact on morbidity, mortality, and cost. Preoperative risk assessment and optimal perioperative management guided by that risk assessment can minimize the consequences associated with postoperative AKI. Adherence to a standardized perioperative pathway designed to reduce risk of AKI after major vascular surgery offers a promising clinical approach to mitigate the incidence and severity of this challenging clinical problem.