Diabetic nephropathy and heart surgery - prevention of perioperative acute renal failure

The diabetic micro-and macroangiopathy leads to retinopathy, nephropathy, peripheral arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Diabetic patients with identified comorbidity, such as nephropathy and peripheral arteriosclerosis, have the highest mortality after heart surgery. Long-term survival is better after coronary surgery compared to catheter angioplasty without or with stent implantation. Compared to on-pump surgery using a cardiopulmonary bypass, off-pump surgery is associated with a lower incidence of acute renal failure. In order to prevent acute renal failure in the course of heart surgery in diabetic patients, the following recommendations should be followed: i) the degree of renal damage (as indicated by the parameters: creatinine-clearance, albuminuria and blood pressure) has to be known before start of surgery; ii) the volume status (central venous pressure, central venous oxygen saturation) should be controlled tightly starting 12 hours before surgery; iii) if the volume status gets out of control post surgery, intensive care treatment using dopamine or loop diuretics should be stopped after 12-24 hours in case of treatment failure; iv) reduce the dose of or better avoid nephrotoxic substances (radio contrast media, antibiotics, non-steroidal pain killers; v) start effective renal replacement therapy early (daily intermittent or continuous hemodialysis, hemofiltration or hemodiafiltration).