Urinary albumin:creatinine ratio (ACR) and the prediction of postoperative complications after abdominal aortic aneurysm repair.

INTRODUCTION

Open repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) requires aortic clamping. This results in an ischaemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) which can lead to the development of the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and multiple organ failure (MOF). We investigated the use of urinary albumin:creatinine ratio (ACR) as a simple predictor of the development of complications (SIRS) postoperatively.

METHODS

Forty-four patients undergoing elective infrarenal AAA repair and 10 control patients undergoing major abdominal surgery had fresh urine samples taken before, immediately after and 24 h after the procedure. Urinary ACR was calculated on all samples, and daily SIRS scores were calculated for all patients postoperatively. Systemic interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels were measured intraoperatively to measure the cytokine response to surgery.

RESULTS

AAA patients demonstrated a characteristic pattern of ACR levels during the three time points, with a significant increase in the ACR immediately postoperatively and with normalisation by 24 h (P<0.001 Wilcoxon signed ranks test). In comparison, control patients did not demonstrate any changes in their ACR (P=0.45 Wilcoxon signed ranks test) suggesting the increased ACR in AAA patients to occur as a result of IRI. ACR did not correlate with the development of SIRS postoperatively or with the systemic IL-6 response.

CONCLUSIONS

Infrarenal AAA repair is associated with a temporary and reversible renal injury. ACR could not, however, be used as a predictor of complications postoperatively.