BACKGROUND: Open abdominal aortic aneurysm repair is often followed by elevated plasma creatinine, likely due to impaired renal blood flow. We evaluated whether postoperative elevation in creatinine relates to renal oxygen extraction during surgery as an index of renal blood flow and also monitored frontal lobe oxygenation.

METHODS: For 19 patients (66 ± 10 years; mean ± SD) undergoing open infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, renal oxygen extraction was determined by arterial and renal vein catheterization. Near-infrared spectroscopy determined frontal lobe oxygenation.

RESULTS: During surgery mean arterial pressure (from 102 ± 14 to 65 ± 11 mm Hg; P < .0001), arterial hemoglobin (from 7.7 ± 0.7 to 6.6 ± 0.8 mmol/L; P < 0.0001), and frontal lobe oxygenation (from 74 ± 6% to 70 ± 6%; P = .0414) decreased, while renal oxygen extraction increased (from 5.3% [4.3-8.1]; median [interquartile range] to 10.8% [5.8-17.5]; P = .0405). Plasma creatinine became significantly elevated on the second day after the operation (from 83 [73-101] to 105 µmol/L [79-143]; P = .0062) with a peak increase observed after 2 days (1-2). The peak increase in creatinine correlated to intraoperative renal oxygen extraction ( r = 0.51; P = .026).

CONCLUSION: Kidney function was affected after open abdominal aortic aneurysm repair likely related to limited renal blood flow. We take the increase in renal oxygen extraction and reduction in frontal lobe oxygenation to suggest that mean arterial pressure and hemoglobin were too low to maintain renal and cerebral circulation in vascular surgical patients.