Safety of nonselective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in cardiac surgery: a historical cohort study.

Purpose: Pain management after cardiac surgery is imperative, as inadequate analgesia can increase the risk of myocardial ischemia, thromboembolism, and pulmonary complications. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are an important component of multimodal analgesia, but their use in the postoperative cardiac surgery population is controversial owing to concerns of acute kidney injury (AKI), thrombotic events, and bleeding. We aimed to evaluate the rate of AKI, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), and major bleeding in patients receiving NSAIDs early after cardiac surgery.

Methods: We conducted a single-centre historical cohort study, which included adult patients who underwent cardiac surgery with sternotomy or thoracotomy between 1 October 2020 and 30 September 2022 and received nonselective NSAIDs postoperatively. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients who developed AKI, MACE, or major bleeding within 7 days of the NSAID exposure during their hospitalization. We used machine learning to identify risk factors associated with adverse events. We assessed pain reduction by analyzing differences in pain scores, opioid use, and supplemental oxygen requirements.

Results: We included 431 patients in this study. After NSAID administration, 12% experienced AKI, 1% had MACE, and 3% developed major bleeding. Risk factors for AKI included older age; shorter height; a history of stroke; low preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and hemoglobin level; high preoperative platelet count, international normalized ratio, and blood urea nitrogen level; and reduced eGFR and platelet count before NSAID exposure.

Conclusion: In patients who received nonselective NSAIDs early after cardiac surgery, the rate of AKI was lower than reported in literature, likely due to selection bias. Baseline renal function emerged as the most important factor, with low preoperative eGFR being the strongest predictor of AKI following NSAID administration.