Increasing mean arterial pressure during cardiac surgery does not reduce the rate of postoperative acute kidney injury.

Introduction: We hypothesized that the optimization of renal haemodynamics by maintaining a high level of mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) could reduce the rate of acute kidney injury (AKI) in high-risk patients.

Methods: In this randomized, controlled study, we enrolled 300 patients scheduled for elective cardiac surgery under cardiopulmonary bypass. All had known risk factors of AKI: serum creatinine clearance between 30 and 60 ml/min for 1.