Effect of Anesthetic Technique on the Occurrence of Acute Kidney Injury after Total Knee Arthroplasty

Recent studies have reported the advantages of spinal anesthesia over general anesthesia in orthopedic patients. However, little is known about the relationship between acute kidney injury (AKI) after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and anesthetic technique. This study aimed to identify the influence of anesthetic technique on AKI in TKA patients. We also evaluated whether the choice of anesthetic technique affected other clinical outcomes. We retrospectively reviewed medical records of patients who underwent TKA between January 2008 and August 2016. Perioperative data were obtained and analyzed. To reduce the influence of potential confounding factors, propensity score (PS) analysis was performed. A total of 2809 patients and 2987 cases of TKA were included in this study. A crude analysis of the total set demonstrated a significantly lower risk of AKI in the spinal anesthesia group. After PS matching, the spinal anesthesia group showed a tendency for reduced AKI, without statistical significance. Furthermore, the spinal anesthesia group showed a lower risk of pulmonary and vascular complications, and shortened hospital stay after PS matching. In TKA patients, spinal anesthesia had a tendency to reduce AKI. Moreover, spinal anesthesia not only reduced vascular and pulmonary complications, but also shortened hospital stay.