A Contemporary Analysis of the 30-day Morbidity and Mortality Associated With Cytoreductive Nephrectomy

Abstract

Objective: To examine the rates of adverse surgical outcomes in patients undergoing cytoreductive nephrectomy (CN) compared to patients undergoing radical nephrectomy in the nonmetastatic setting using a large administrative database.

Methods: Patients in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) who underwent a radical nephrectomy between 2011 and 2016 were included. Patients were stratified by the preoperative variable of presence or absence of metastatic cancer. Perioperative outcomes were compared. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to test the association between patients with metastatic cancer and perioperative morbidity and 30-day mortality.

Results: There were 15,869 total patients included in this analysis of whom 1322 (8%) patients had metastatic cancer. Of the entire cohort, the majority of patients were over 60 years old (58%) and 9621 (61%) were male. Seventy-three of the patients were Caucasian. Patients with metastatic cancer had more minor (P< .01) and major (P< .01) complications, a higher rate of reoperation (P< .01), and a higher rate of unplanned readmissions (P< .01). Finally, the cohort with metastatic cancer had a higher rate of postoperative 30-day mortality (P< .01) than patients without metastatic cancer.

Conclusion: Patients undergoing a CN have significantly worse perioperative outcomes than patients undergoing a radical nephrectomy without evidence of metastases. Careful surgical risk stratification and appropriate patient counseling should be undertaken when selecting candidates for CN.