Purpose:

Identify the incidence and risk factors for acute kidney injury (AKI) following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) with and without tourniquet.

Material and methods:

100 patients were randomized into two groups. Postoperative AKI was defined as the postoperative creatinine level ≥ 0.3 mg/dl compared with baseline. Potential variables associated with AKI were analyzed by multivariate logistic regression model to identify the AKI risk factors in TKA patients with and without tourniquet.

Results:

AKI rate was 22%, tourniquet use (OR = 2.66, p = 0.014), blood loss > 500 cm3 (OR = 3.99, p = 0.001), postoperative Hb < 10 g/dl (OR = 2.68, p = 0.008), blood transfusions (OR = 2.86, p = 0.012) and diabetes (OR = 2.80, p = 0.006) were associated with increased risk of postoperative AKI.

Conclusions:

The use of tourniquet should be indicated with caution and should not be used routinely in patients with other risk factors for the development of acute kidney dysfunction, other measures to achieve trans-surgical hemostasis should be implemented in our environment to reduce the incidence of acute kidney dysfunction related to the use of the tourniquet.