A Comparison of Bleeding Complications in Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Renal Cryoablation Using Cryoprobes with and without Heat-Based Track Ablation

Purpose: To determine if the use of heat-based track ablation with new-generation cryoprobes is associated with decreased renal cryoablation bleeding complications. Materials and Methods: Eighty-nine patients who underwent percutaneous cryoablation for treatment of a solitary renal mass with the use of cryoprobes with track ablation (CwTA) from October 29, 2015, to May 18, 2017, were compared with a propensity score–matched control group of 178 patients who underwent treatment with the use of cryoprobes without track ablation (Cw/oTA) from January 5, 2012, to October 28, 2015. Bleeding complications were assessed with the use of the Clavien-Dindo classification system and compared between the matched patient groups by means of conditional logistic regression, both univariately and in a multivariate model to adjust for imbalanced covariates. Change in patient hemoglobin was evaluated as a secondary measure of periprocedural bleeding. Results: Seven of the 89 patients (7.9%) who underwent percutaneous renal cryoablation with the use of CwTA developed major (grade ≥3) bleeding complications, versus 13 of the 178 patients (7.3%) treated with the use of Cw/oTA. Conditional logistic regression analysis adjusted for potential confounders showed that major, minor, and overall bleeding complications were not associated with the type of cryoprobes used for treatment (P values.727,.370, and.733, respectively). There was also no significant difference in postprocedural change in hemoglobin for patients treated with the use of CwTA compared with Cw/oTA (P =.909). Furthermore, total duration of track ablation in patients with bleeding complications (mean 169 seconds, SD 68, range 60–240) was not significantly different than in patients without bleeding complications (mean 171 seconds, SD 86, range 30–360; P =.940). Conclusions: The use of cryoprobes with heat-based track ablation did not decrease the incidence of bleeding complications after renal cryoablation compared with procedures performed without track ablation.