Surgeon preference of surgical approach for partial nephrectomy in patients with baseline chronic kidney disease: a nationwide population-based analysis in the USA

Purpose: To examine trends in utilization of open, laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgical approaches for treatment of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) undergoing partial nephrectomy (PN) within the USA. Methods: We analyzed a weighted sample of 112,117 patients from the Premier administrative dataset who underwent PN for renal mass between 2003 and 2015. Proportions of surgical approach utilization were evaluated by CKD status and further stratified by surgery year and surgeon volume. A multivariate logistic regression model was created to predict receipt of minimally invasive PN. Results: Seven thousand five hundred and sixty-five (6.7%) patients with CKD were identified. The proportion of CKD patients receiving open PN decreased from 72.4% in 2003–2007 to 36.1% in 2012–2015 (p < 0.001). Although the robot-assisted PN was the dominant surgical approach for both patients with and without CKD in 2012–2015, the proportion receiving open PN was higher in patients with CKD compared to those without CKD (p = 0.018). Multivariate analysis showed that the presence of CKD was independently associated with lower odds of receiving a minimally invasive approach (OR 0.47 for the entire study cohort, OR 0.27 for high volume robot-assisted PN surgeons, and OR 0.51 for recent years, all p < 0.001). These trends remained when CKD stages were evaluated individually. Conclusion: Patients with CKD undergoing PN were preferentially treated with open surgery despite an overall increase in robot-assisted PN use over the past 13 years. Further studies evaluating surgical outcomes in this population are warranted for determination of optimal approach and construction of evidence-based guidelines.