Renal impairment in hepatic cryotherapy.

Cryoshock is a syndrome of coagulopathy, renal, and pulmonary injury following cryotherapy, and its etiology is unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of hepatic cryotherapy on renal function, and whether this effect is related to volume of cryotherapy, and to identify any predictors of renal impairment in patients who undergo cryotherapy. A retrospective analysis of all patients with primary or secondary hepatic malignancy treated with cryotherapy from April 1990 to October 1996 was conducted. Ten of 204 patients with renal impairment (elevation in creatinine of greater than 0.02 mmol/L for more than 2 days postprocedure) were identified. One patient has postoperative pancreatitis with late renal impairment (20 days) and was excluded. The severity of renal impairment was usually modest (mean rise in creatinine of 0.31 mmol/L; SD, 0.19). Two patients required temporary hemodialysis. Only one patient, who had significant cardiac disease, had associated pulmonary injury and shock. Demographic data in both groups were comparable, except for a trend toward more noncolorectal cancer patients in the renal impairment group (4/9 vs 33/194). Patients in the renal impairment group had a greater number of lesions than those of the nonrenal impairment group (3.4 vs 2.1, p < 0.01), as well as larger lesion diameter (2.9 vs 1.9, p < 0.01), increased freezing time (74.7 vs 44.3, p < 0.01), and a higher aspartate transaminase (AST) (2254 vs 1157, p < 0.01). This study suggests that renal impairment is more likely to be seen in patients undergoing more extensive cryotherapy. The number and diameter of lesions together with AST data link renal injury with magnitude of liver injury--all renal impairment patients had an AST > 1000, compared with only 28% of patients who did not.