Reno-protective effects of perioperative dexmedetomidine in kidney transplantation: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Abstract Background and objective There is currently no FDA-approved medical therapy for delayed graft function (DGF). Dexmedetomidine (DEX) has multiple reno-protective effects preventing ischemic reperfusion injury, DGF, and acute kidney injury. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the reno-protective effects of perioperative DEX during renal transplantation. Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizing randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from WOS, SCOPUS, EMBASE, PubMed, and CENTRAL until June 8th, 2022. We used the risk ratio (RR) for dichotomous outcomes and the mean difference for continuous outcomes; both presented with the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI). We registered our protocol in PROSPERO with ID: CRD42022338898. Results We included four RCTs with 339 patients. Pooled risk ratio found no difference between DEX and placebo in reducing DGF (RR: 0.58 with 95% CI [0.34, 1.01], p = 0.05) and acute rejection (RR: 0.88 with 95% CI [0.52, 1.49], p = 0.63). However, DEX improved short-term creatinine on day 1 (MD: − 0.76 with 95% CI [− 1.23, − 0.3], p = 0.001) and day 2 (MD: − 0.28 with 95% CI [− 0.5, − 0.07], p = 0.01); and blood urea nitrogen on day 2 (MD: − 10.16 with 95% CI [− 17.21, − 3.10], p = 0.005) and day 3 (MD: − 6.72 with 95% CI [− 12.85, − 0.58], p = 0.03). Conclusion Although there is no difference between DEX and placebo regarding reducing DGF and acute rejection after kidney transplantation, there may be some evidence that it has reno-protective benefits because we found statistically significant improvement in the short-term serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen levels. More trials are required to investigate the long-term reno-protective effects of DEX.