Effectiveness of remote ischemic preconditioning in patients undergoing transplant surgery: Meta-Analysis of randomized control studies

Remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) is a phenomenon in which the induction of shortened periods of ischemia prior to surgical procedures within a distant tissue preserves other tissues or organs of concern, such as the liver or kidney in transplant surgery, in the event of prolonged ischemic insults. We aim to evaluate the effectiveness of RIPC in patients undergoing transplant surgery, specifically kidney and liver transplants. PubMed, Embase, and Scopus were searched until 19 December 2023 for trials evaluating RIPC in patients undergoing transplant surgery. A total of 9364 search articles were obtained, which yielded 10 eligible studies. Data analysis was done using RevMan 5.4 software. The risk of bias was done using Cochrane risk of bias tool. For graft rejection, the study observed a relative risk of 0.99 (95% CI, 0.49 to 1.98, P=0.97) from 5 trials, indicating no significant effect of RIPC on graft survival in both kidney and liver transplants. The length of hospital stay also showed no significant decrease for those undergoing RIPC, with (MD) of -0.58 (95% CI, -1.38 to 0.23, P=0.16). GFR at 1 year post-kidney transplant did not significantly change in the RIPC group compared to controls, as evidenced by an MD of -0.13 (95% CI, -3.79 to 3.54, P=0.95). These results collectively suggest that RIPC may not be effective in reducing patient, or graft, outcomes.