Renal revascularization in patients with a single functioning ischemic kidney.

From 1965 to 1985, 19 patients with a single, ischemic kidney underwent renal revascularization. Thirteen patients had a single kidney and six had a single functioning kidney. The cause of the renal artery lesions was atherosclerosis in 17 patients and fibromuscular dysplasia in two. All but one were hypertensive with a mean diastolic blood pressure of 119 mm Hg and they were taking an average of 2.6 antihypertensive medications. Most had diminished renal function with a mean serum creatinine value of 3.7 mg/dl (range 0.8 to 9.0 mg/dl) and a mean creatinine clearance of 38 ml/min (range 8 to 75 ml/min). Three patients required preoperative hemodialysis. The first two patients treated died postoperatively, but no deaths have occurred since 1970. Follow-up among the survivors averaged 32.9 months. The mean serum creatinine value decreased significantly to 2.2 mg/dl postoperatively (p less than 0.04); the mean diastolic pressure decreased significantly to 86 mm Hg (p less than 0.001). One patient was normotensive preoperatively. Of the 16 patients surviving operation, 14 had improvement of their hypertension, one was cured, and only one did not benefit. No patient's hypertension was worse. The mean number of postoperative antihypertensive medications decreased significantly to 1.5 medications per patient (p less than 0.02). These data suggest that an aggressive surgical approach is warranted in patients with a single ischemic kidney in need of revascularization because of the gratifying response both in control of hypertension and improvement of renal function.