Angiotensin 2 for AKI After OLT

Kidney injury is a common complication following liver transplantation and is associated with a higher complication rate and increased risk of death. While there are many factors that likely contribute to kidney injury in the perioperative period, a relative low serum level of angiotensin 2 (Ang 2) (a protein hormone that causes blood vessels to narrow) found in patients with liver cirrhosis (late stage of liver damage) may increase their risk of developing acute kidney injury (sudden episode of kidney failure or damage). We propose to investigate how early administration of Ang 2, a new vasopressor drug approved by the FDA in December 2017 for patients with low blood pressure, during the intra-operative period of liver transplant surgery affects the rate of kidney injury after transplantation. Patients who are deemed appropriate candidates for the study will be randomized 1:1 to the treatment and control groups. The intervention period of the study will occur in the operating room during transplant surgery and will be performed by their anesthesiologists. In the Treatment group, patients will receive Ang 2 infusions in addition to other standard vasopressors while patients in the control group will receive standard vasopressors alone. The infusion of Ang 2 in the treatment group will continue through the duration of the surgery and will be stopped prior to leaving the operating room. Both the treatment group and the control group will then be followed for 14 days to evaluate rates of kidney injury and to look for any complications. The follow up period will be extended to 28 days to look at in-hospital mortality rates in both groups. The daily follow up analysis will occur while the enrolled patients are inpatient following their transplantation surgery and will be done by looking at lab values and other data that is routinely gathered by their managing teams. This study will serve as a pilot study to evaluate feasibility of our protocol and to collect some preliminary data on the use of Ang 2 in this patient population. As such we plan to enroll approximately 30 patients who have accepted an offer to receive a donor liver. We hope to reach our goal enrollment within 5 months of starting the study.