Contrast associated acute kidney injury (CA-AKI) is a major complication of contrast media (CM) exposure following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality in both early and late phases. During the past years, several CA-AKI prevention strategies based on CM sparing have been proposed, which differ significantly in terms of methodological features and efficacy. In this review, we propose a new classification of these techniques based on their dependency on operators' management. Following, we summarize current evidence on the effectiveness in terms of CA-AKI reduction of each one of the currently available operator-dependent and -independent CM minimization strategies.