Characteristics of patients with xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis undergoing nephrectomy: Identifying ways to optimise outcomes

Objective: This study is conducted to investigate characteristics of patients with xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis (XGP) who undergo nephrectomy and to identify ways to optimise outcomes for these patients. Materials and methods: 1587 patients were queried from our institutional electronic medical records. 12 patients who underwent nephrectomy with preoperative diagnoses of XGP in the operative note were identified. Associations were analysed with Kendall’s τ_b. p < 0.05 was statistically significant. Results: All patients were hemodynamically stable on day of surgery. Two patients died on postoperative days 1 and 3 from septic shock. Both had surgery during inpatient admission rather than electively, received relatively short duration of preoperative antibiotics (8 and 10 days), and both were on hemodialysis preoperatively. There was possible association between decreased glomerular filtration rate (τ_b = −0.550, p = 0.032) and death postoperatively. Among patients who lived, there was no significant association between duration of antibiotic therapy after intervention and duration of postoperative hospitalisation. Conclusion: These findings could suggest a possible association between declining renal function and mortality in our case series; and performing nephrectomy electively after a longer course of antibiotics may be associated with improved outcomes compared to nephrectomy performed during hospitalisation with a shorter course of antibiotics.