Acute kidney injury in cardiac surgery

Introduction. Acute kidney injury (AKI) associated with cardiac surgery is a common postoperative complication that increases the morbidity and mortality substantially. However, there is limited information of AKI after cardiac surgery in our institution. Material and methods. We conducted a prospective, observational, and longitudinal analysis of adult patients that underwent to cardiac surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass and aortic cross clamp. Patients with preoperative chronic renal insufficiency that were on dialysis, with AKI detected up to 24 h before the procedure, or that received contrast agents 72 h before surgery were excluded. AKI was defined by the AKIN classification. Patients were followed up to 7 days after surgery or before if discharged from the intensive care unit. We analyzed age, sex, body mass index (BMI), co-morbilities, previous cardiac surgery, left ventricular ejection fraction, New York Heart Association class, type of procedure, cardiopulmonary bypass time, cross clamp time and bleeding.