OBJECTIVES: The goal was to investigate the prevalence of acute kidney injury (AKI) after total arch replacement with frozen elephant trunk procedure, which was achieved by antegrade cerebral perfusion and moderate hypothermic circulatory arrest (MHCA) or deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) among patients with type A aortic dissection. METHODS: Overall, 627 adult type A aortic dissection patients who underwent total arch replacement with frozen elephant trunk from January 2013 until December 2016 at Fuwai Hospital were divided into the DHCA (14.1-20.0 degrees C) and MHCA (20.1-28.0 degrees C) groups. Postoperative AKI as the primary outcome was compared using propensity-matched scoring. RESULTS: Overall, 340 (54.2%) and 287 (45.8%) patients underwent DHCA and MHCA, respectively. The overall incidence of AKI was 75.4%. Age [odds ratio (OR) 1.02, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.00-1.04; P =0.022], body mass index (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.01-1.12; P = 0.016), cardiopulmonary bypass duration (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.01; P = 0.003) and hypertension history (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.14-2.70; P = 0.010) were identified as independent risk factors for AKI onset with multivariable analysis. Postoperative AKI was not significantly different between the DHCA and MHCA groups regardless of the overall or propensity-matched cohort (overall data: P = 0.17; propensity score data: P = 0.88). Patients with MHCA experienced higher rates of postoperative stroke after propensity score analysis (DHCA 0.9% vs MHCA 3.7%; P = 0.034). CONCLUSIONS: MHCA was not superior to DHCA in decreasing postoperative AKI. Thus, MHCA should not definitively replace DHCA.