Is there a predictive value of the preoperative neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in terms of intensive care need in geriatric patients who underwent pertrochanteric fracture surgery?

Background: Pertrochanteric fractures are serious health problem with an ever-increasing prevalence in elderly population. Potential post-operative intensive care need leads to delays in the timing of surgery due to the referral of patients to better equipped hospitals as well as the inability to arrange a reserved intensive care bed. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether pre-op-erative neutrophillymphocyte ratio (NLR) has predictive value in terms of post-operative intensive care need in geriatric patients who underwent surgery following pertrochanteric fractures.

Methods: A total of 535 patients aged 65 years and above with hip fractures who presented to the emergency service between 2017 and 2020 were retrospectively screened. Out of 535 patients, 317 patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. The screened patient population was divided into two groups as those followed in the post-operative intensive care unit (ICU) and those followed in the orthopedic ward.

Results: There were 190 patients (59.9%) who were followed in the orthopedic ward postoperatively and 127 (40.1%) patients followed in the ICU postoperatively. While the mean pre-operative NLR value of all patients was 6.57, the mean pre-operative NLR of the patients who were followed up postoperatively in the orthopedic ward was 5.85, and the mean NLR of those who were followed up in the ICU was 7.65. It was found that the admission NLR values of the ICU group patients were significantly higher compared to those of the orthopedic ward group (p<0.001) and also the cutoff value of NLR was calculated as 6.14.

Conclusion: We believe that this objective, simple, cost-effective, and rapid marker can be used in combination with other parameters to predict ICU need to prevent surgical delays due to the lack of a reserved intensive care bed in the ASA 3 geriatric patient group with pertrochanteric fractures, whose intensive care need cannot be clarified, thereby reducing mortality and morbidity.