Successful Use of Adjunctive Red Blood Cell Exchange Therapy for Treatment of an Acute Hemolytic Reaction After ABO-Incompatible Red Blood Cell Transfusion

An acute hemolytic transfusion reaction is a potentially fatal complication resulting from the transfusion of mismatched blood products. Symptoms vary from mild to severe depending on how much incompatible antigen was transfused and the nature of the recipient’s antibodies. There is no consensus agreement of appropriate management other than discontinuing the transfusion and basic supportive methods including adjunctive pharmacologic agents. A 40-year-old male presented with a gunshot wound to the upper torso. During surgery, the O+ patient lost 1.3 L of blood and postoperatively was inadvertently given one unit of A+ packed red blood cells. The blood bank noticed the error and notified the floor within the hour. An acute hemolytic transfusion reaction had progressed to shock and disseminated intravascular coagulation within hours. The clinical course continued to decline despite a norepinephrine drip and a red blood cell exchange transfusion was implemented within 5 h of the mismatched transfusion. The patient’s hematological parameters and clinical markers improved and he was eventually discharged in stable condition. An adjunctive red blood cell exchange transfusion may be useful when treating an ABO-incompatible acute hemolytic transfusion reaction if there has been a large volume mismatched transfusion and a poor clinical response to basic supportive methods.

Identifying unrecognized collecting system entry and the integrity of repair during open partial nephrectomy: comparison of two techniques

PURPOSE

To compare retrograde dye injection through an externalized ureteral catheter with direct needle injection of dye into proximal ureter for identification of unrecognized collecting system disruption and integrity of subsequent repair during open partial nephrectomy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed the records of 259 consecutive patients who underwent open partial nephrectomy. Externalized ureteral catheters were placed preoperatively in 110 patients (Group 1); needle injection of methylene blue directly into proximal ureter was used in 120 patients (Group 2). No assessment of the collecting system was performed in 29 patients (Group 3). We compared intraoperative parameters, tumor characteristics, collecting system entry and incidence of urine leaks among the three groups.

RESULTS

The mean tumor diameter was 3.1 cm in Group 1, 3.6cm in Group 2, and 3.8 cm in Group 3 (p = 0.04); mean EBL 320cc, 351 cc and 376cc (p = 0.5); mean operative time 193.5 minutes, 221 minutes and 290 minutes (p < 0.001). Collecting system entry was recognized in 63%, 76% and 38% of cases in Groups 1, 2 and 3 respectively. (p = 0.07). Postoperative urine leaks requiring some form of management occurred in 11 patients from group 1 and 6 from group 2. (p = 0.2). No patient in Group 3 developed a urinary leak.

CONCLUSIONS

Identification of unrecognized collecting system disruption as well as postoperative urine leak rate in patients undergoing partial nephrectomy were not influenced by the intraoperative technique of identifying unrecognized collecting system entry. Postoperative urine leaks are uncommon despite recognized collecting system disruption in the majority of patients.

Use of R.E.N.A.L. nephrometry scoring system to predict the functional efficacy of nephron-sparing surgery in the solitary kidney

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Background: Recently, the R.E.N.A.L. nephrometry scoring system was introduced to objectively describe renal masses with respect to size, the degree to which they are exo/endophytic, the nearness to the collecting system, whether they are anterior or posterior and the location relative to polar lines. It is our aim to evaluate the R.E.N.A.L. nephrometry scoring system’s ability to predict functional renal loss attributed to nephron-sparing surgery (NSS).

Methods: We evaluated 42 patients presenting with either an anatomic (32) or functionally solitary (10) kidneys undergoing partial nephrectomy (PN). Each renal unit was assigned a R.E.N.A.L. nephrometry score utilizing pre-operative cross-sectional imaging. The CKD−EPI equation was applied to serum creatinine levels to generate corresponding estimated glomerular filtration rates (eGFR). The difference between the eGFR at baseline and at post-operative time points served as a measurement of renal function loss attributed to PN.

Results: Forty-two patients underwent PN with mean pre-operative eGFR of 61.5 mL/min/1.73m2. The median total nephrometry score was 8, ranging from 4–10. Twenty-eight (66.7%) of the renal lesions were ≤ 4 cm, 13 (31%) were between 4 and 7 cm, and 1 (2.4%) was >7 cm in diameter. The majority (54.8%) of the patients had tumors with more than 50% of tumor burden lying outside the expected renal border whereas 3 patients (7.1%) had tumors considered to be completely endophytic. Twenty-seven (64.3%) were within 4 mm of the collecting system. Tumor locations defined as: completely polar, interpolar, and completely central were assigned to 11, 15, and 16 lesions respectively. By post-operative month 6, the overall average eGFR of 53.9 mL/min/1.73m2 was significantly less (p = 0.0293) than the pre-operative value. However, we were unable to correlate change in post-operative eGFR with pre-operative total or individual R.E.N.A.L. scoring parameters.

Conclusions: Neither the individual components of the R.E.N.A.L. nephrometry scoring system nor the total nephrometry score correlated with realized functional loss as assessed by eGFR in patients with a solitary kidney undergoing NSS.