OBJECTIVE: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication
after cardiac surgery, and there is no pharmacologic prophylaxis of AKI.
Some animal and clinical studies showed the renoprotection effect of
dexmedetomidine (DEX) on AKI, but data from other trials came to the
opposite conclusion following cardiac surgery. METHODS: We
searched databases including EMBASE, PubMed, and Cochrane CENTRAL for
randomized controlled trials (RCTs) focused on DEX for AKI in adult
patients after cardiac surgery. The primary outcome was incidence of
AKI. Secondary outcomes were mechanical ventilation (MV) duration,
intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay (LOS), hospital LOS and
mortality. RESULTS: Fifteen trials enrolling 2907 study
patients were collected in the meta-analyses. Compared with controls,
DEX reduced the incidence of postoperative AKI [odds ratio (OR), 0.66;
95%confidence interval (CI), 0.48-0.91; P=0.01], and there was no
significant difference between groups in postoperative mortality (OR,
0.63; 95%CI, 0.32-1.26; P=0.19), MV duration [weighted mean
difference(WMD), -0.44; 95%CI, -1.50-0.63; P=0.42], ICU LOS (WMD,
-1.19; 95%CI, -2.89-0.51; P=0.17) and hospital LOS (WMD, -0.31; 95%CI,
-0.76-0.15; P=0.19). CONCLUSIONS: Perioperative DEX use reduced
the incidence of postoperative AKI in adult patients undergoing cardiac
surgery. No significant decrease existed in mortality, MV duration, ICU
LOS and hospital LOS owing to the DEX administration.