Clinical Challenges in Trauma Surgery: Renal Trauma

To operate or not to operate, to drain the urine leak or to not drain it, those are the questions. Join our Miami Trauma team including Drs. Urréchaga, Neeman, and Rattan- in their final episode together! - as they discuss how to navigate the ins and outs of renal trauma!

Learning Objectives:
· Define the different renal injury grades and how to manage each,
· Identify when to take the renal trauma patient to the operating room,
· Discuss when to involve IR for urinary drainage or embolization.
· Explain when and how to perform a nephrectomy.
· Debate the treatment of penetrating zone two injuries- to explore or not explore?

Quick Hits:
1. Most kidney injuries, the vast majority, can be non-operatively managed.
2. For pretty much all AAST grade of injury, the choice to go to the OR immediately lies in whether the patient is stable or unstable.
3. If there is a urinary leak seen on imaging, it can usually just be observed and followed with repeat imaging to determine the need for drainage, unless the injury is significant or if there is injury to the renal pelvis- then the patient will usually need a drainage procedure.
4. Consider IR in any stable patient found to have active extravasation, fistula, or pseudoaneurysm.
5. In the case of an unstable patient, except very rare circumstances, you should be going to the OR
6. If there is another cause of instability, address that first. If you’re opening Gerota’s fascia, be prepared to commit to a nephrectomy.
7. In penetrating injury, the formal teaching is mandatory exploration of a renal hematoma. Real world experience shows that this isn’t always necessary- such as in tangential injuries or injuries to the periphery- on a case-by-case basis.

References
1. Federico C, Moore Ernest E, Yoram K, Walter B, Aari L, Yosuke M, et al. Kidney and uro-trauma: WSES-AAST guidelines. World J Emerg Surg 2019;14:54.
2. Morey AF, Brandes S, Dugi DD 3rd et al: Urotrauma: AUA guideline. J Urol 2014, 192: 327. Published 2014; Amended 2017, 2020.
3. Aziz HA, Bugaev N, Baltazar G, Brown Z, Haines K, Gupta S, Yeung L, Posluszny J, Como J, Freeman J, Kasotakis G. Management of adult renal trauma: a practice management guideline from the eastern association for the surgery of trauma. BMC Surg. 2023 Jan 27;23(1):22. doi: 10.1186/s12893-023-01914-x. PMID: 36707832; PMCID: PMC9881253.
4. Petrone P, Perez-Calvo J, Brathwaite CEM, Islam S, Joseph DK. Traumatic kidney injuries: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Surg. 2020 Feb;74:13-21. doi: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2019.12.013. Epub 2019 Dec 21. PMID: 31870753.

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