The role of remote ischemic preconditioning on postoperative kidney injury in patients undergoing cardiac and vascular interventions: a meta-analysis

The objective of this study was to perform a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating whether a remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) protocol provides renal protection to patients undergoing cardiac and vascular interventions. Searches were conducted in the databases PUBMED, EMBASE and Cochrane Library. RCTs that fulfilled the inclusion criteria and addressed the clinical questions of this analysis were further assessed. We identified ten studies with a total of 924 patients undergoing cardiac and vascular interventions with or without RIPC. There was a significantly lower incidence of acute kidney injury in the RIPC group compared with control group using the fixed effect model (RR 0.69, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.90, P = 0.007), but not with the random effects model (RR 0.73, 95% CI 0.50 to 1.06, P = 0.10). There was no difference in the levels of renal biomarkers, incidence of renal replacement therapy, mortality, hospital stay, and intensive care unit stay between two groups. In conclusion, there is no enough evidence that RIPC provided renal protection in patients undergoing cardiac and vascular interventions. Large-scale RCTs are necessary to confirm the potential role of RIPC on renal impairment.