Abstract: 【Abstract】Objective To investigate whether prEoperative administration of erythropoietin (EPO) can improve acute kidney injury (AKI) and its prognosis in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Methods A singlEcenter randomized controlled study including 92 patients undergoing cardiac surgery in Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery of Nanjing First Hospital was conducted. Patients were randomly divided into EPO group and control group. Post-operative prognosis indicators such as incidence of AKI, requirement of renal replacement therapy, death and length of stay in hospital were compared between the two
groups. Renal function and inflammation indicators at different stages after surgery were analyzed by repeated measurement analysis of variance. Results Compared with the control group, the early renal injury biomarkers of neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin (NGAL) and interleukin-18 (IL-18) in the EPO group were significant decrease at different stages after operation (F= 15.330 and 8.243 respectively, P＜0.001 and 0.006 respectively). The incidence of AKI was lower in the EPO group but without statistically significance (19.6% vs. 32.6%, χ2=2.029, P=0.235). There were no statistical differences in other parameters of post-operative prognosis between the two groups. Conclusions PrEoperative administration of EPO is safe and may have renal protection effects in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. However, the effects of EPO on other parameters of post-operative prognosis are unknown.

Key words: Acute kidney injury, Cardiac surgery, Erythropoietin, Prognosis