A Fully Automated Artificial Intelligence-Based Approach to Predict Renal Function after Radical or Partial Nephrectomy.

Objectives: To test if our artificial intelligence (AI)-postoperative GFR prediction is as accurate as a validated clinical model. The American Urologic Association recommends estimating postoperative glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in patients with renal masses and prioritizing partial nephrectomy (PN) when GFR would be< 45 ml/min/1.73m ² if radical nephrectomy (RN) was performed. Previously validated models have limited clinical uptake.
Methods: We included 300 patients undergoing nephrectomy for renal tumors from KiTS19 challenge. Preoperative GFR was collected just before surgery, and new baseline GFR 3-12 months postoperatively. Split-renal function (SRF) was determined in a fully automated way from preoperative computed tomography, combining our deep learning segmentation model, then using those segmentation masks to estimate postoperative GFR=1.24×GFR _Pre-RN ×SRF _{Contralateral} for RN and 89% of GFR _preoperative for PN. A clinical model estimated postoperative GFR=35+GFR _preoperative x0.65-18 (if RN)-agex0.25+3 (if tumor>7cm)-2 (if diabetes). We compared the AI and clinical model GFR estimations to the measured postoperative GFR using correlation coefficients and their ability to predict GFR<45 using logistic regression.
Results: Median age was 60 years, 41% were female, and 62% had PN. Median tumor size was 4.2 cm, and 92% were malignant. Compared to the measured postoperative GFR, correlation coefficients were 0.75 and 0.77 for the AI and clinical models, respectively. The AI and clinical models performed similarly for predicting GFR<45 (areas under the curve 0.89 and 0.9, respectively).
Conclusions: Our fully automated prediction of new baseline renal function is as accurate as a validated clinical model without needing clinical details, clinician time, or measurements.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Inc.)