Epidemiology of acute kidney injury among paediatric patients after repair of anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery

OBJECTIVES Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a prevalent complication after the surgical repair of paediatric cardiac defects and is associated with poor outcomes. Insufficient renal perfusion secondary to severe myocardial dysfunction in neonates is most likely an independent risk factor in patients undergoing repair for anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA). We retrospectively investigated the epidemiology and outcomes of children with ALCAPA who developed AKI after repair. METHODS Eighty-nine children underwent left coronary reimplantation. The paediatric-modified risk, injury, failure, loss and end-stage (p-RIFLE) criteria were used to diagnose AKI. RESULTS The incidence of AKI was 67.4% (60/89) in our study. Among the patient cohort with AKI, 23 (38.3%) were diagnosed with acute kidney injury/failure (I/F) (20 with acute kidney injury and 3 with acute kidney failure). Poor cardiac function (left ventricular ejection fraction < 35%) prior to surgery was a significant contributing factor associated with the onset of AKI [odds ratio (OR) 5.55, 95% confidential interval (CI) 1.39–22.13; P = 0.015], while a longer duration from diagnosis to surgical repair (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.95–1.00; P = 0.049) and a higher preoperative albumin level (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.70–0.99; P = 0.041) were found to lower the risk of AKI. Neither the severity of preoperative mitral regurgitation nor mitral annuloplasty was associated with the onset of AKI. After reimplantation, there was 1 death in the no-AKI group and 2 deaths in the AKI/F group (P = 0.356); the remaining patients survived until hospital discharge. The median follow-up time was 46.5 months (34.0–63.25). During follow-up, patients in the AKI cohort were seen more often by specialists and reassessed more often by echocardiography. CONCLUSIONS Paediatric AKI after ALCAPA repair occurs at a relatively higher incidence than that suggested by previous reports and is linked to poor clinical outcomes. Preoperative cardiac dysfunction (left ventricular ejection fraction < 35%) is strongly associated with AKI. The beneficial effect of delaying surgery seen in some of our cases warrants further investigation, as it is not concordant with standard teaching regarding the timing of surgery for ALCAPA.