Early versus late initiation of renal replacement therapy impacts mortality in patients with acute kidney injury post cardiac surgery: a meta-analysis

Honghong Zou, Qianwen Hong, Gaosi XU

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common clinical complication of cardiac surgery and increases mortality and hospitalization. We aimed to explore and perform an updated meta-analysis of qualitative and quantitative evaluations of the relationship between early renal replacement therapy (RRT) and mortality. We searched the Chinese Biomedical Database, the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Global Health, MEDLINE and PubMed. Fifteen studies (five randomized controlled trials (RCTs), one prospective cohort and nine retrospective cohorts) including 1479 patients were identified for detailed evaluation. The meta-analysis suggested that early RRT initiation reduced 28-day mortality (odds ratio (OR) 0.36; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.23 to 0.57; I (2) 60%), and shortened intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay (LOS) (mean difference (MD) -2.50; 95% CI -3.53 to -1.47; I (2) 88%) and hospital LOS (MD -0.69; 95% CI -1.13 to -0.25; I (2) 88%), and also reduced the duration of RRT (MD -1.18; 95% CI -2.26 to -0.11; I (2) 69%), especially when RRT was initiated early within 12 hours (OR 0.23; 95% CI 0.08 to 0.63; I (2) 73%) and within 24 hours (OR 0.52; 95% CI 0.28 to 0.95; I (2) 58%) in patients with AKI after cardiac surgery. Early RRT initiation decreased 28-day mortality, especially when it was started within 24 hours after cardiac surgery in patients with AKI.