[Arterial embolization of polycystic kidneys as an alternative to ergonomic nephrectomy in renal pre-transplantation. Monocentric retrospective study].

PURPOSE: This study aims at providing a retrospective assessment of the decrease in renal volume after renal artery embolization (RAE) among a group of patients with autosomal dominant polycystic renal disease and for whom transplantation, for ergonomic reasons was temporarily advised against.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

Between November 2014 and March 2017, as part of pre-transplantory procedure 15 patients, including 11 men and 4 women benfited from renal embolization (RAE) in a context of preparation for transplant in Lille University Hospital. All of the patients were suffering from autosomal dominant polycystic renal disease (ADPKD) at a severe or terminal stage of renal disease.

RESULTS

The original mean total kidney volume (TKV) was 2550.6 cm3±1771 (1102 cm3; 7310 cm3), the average TKV at 3 months was 1684 cm3±1539 (648 cm3; 6930 cm3) with an average decrease of 33% in the volume (5.2%; 83.9%) (95% confidence interval [0.229-0.436]) (P<0.01) and 1632±1743 (599 cm3; 6758 cm3) at 6 months with an average decrease of 40.7% (7.6%; 64.1%) (IC95% 0.306-0.508) (P<0.01). Among the 15 patients, 13 had their contraindication removed and to date 7 have had successful transplants. One failure due to a very high initial volume (7310cm3) required a secondary nephrectomy. No post-embolization syndrome has been noticed, 2 minor complications occurred (13%) involving a difficult resumption of transit and there was one case of hematuria.

CONCLUSION

ERA procedures must have a place in the ergonomic transplant strategy of patients with ADPKD with a low complication rate and a high efficiency. Nephrectomy indications before transplantation must therefore be reconsidered due to a major postoperative risk. Our results are in line with larger scale studies. Nevertheless, these results need to be confirmed by a large-scale randomized prospective study.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.