The role of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and systemic immune inflammation index in predicting the necessity for surgery and therapeutic surgery in patients with anterior abdominal stab wounds.

Background: In this diagnostic accuracy study, we examined the effectiveness of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and systemic immune inflammation index (SII) in predicting the need for surgical intervention in patients with anterior abdominal stab wounds (AASW) who exhibit unclear findings on physical examination yet remain hemodynamically stable.

Methods: Over a 7-year period, patients with AASW were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into two groups as surgical (SG) and nonsurgical group (nSG). The SG were also divided into two groups as therapeutic surgery (TS) group and the non-therapeutic surgery (nTS) group. The groups were compared in terms of NLR, PLR values and SII scores.

Results: In a retrospective analysis of 199 patients with AASW, NLR, PLR and SII obtained during clinical follow-up of patients with AASW in whom the necessity for immediate surgery was unclear significantly predicted therapeutic surgery (p < 0.001 for all). These parameters did not show a significant difference in predicting the need for surgery at the admission. NLR showed an AUC of 0.971 and performed significantly better than PLR and SII (AUC = 0.874 and 0.902, respectively) in predicting TS. The optimal cut-off value for NLR was 3.33, with a sensitivity of 98.2%, a specificity of 90%, and a negative likelihood ratio of 0.02. Time from admission to surgery was significantly shorter in the TS group (p = 0.001).

Conclusion: NLR, PLR and SII values may be useful in predicting therapeutic surgery during clinical follow-up in AASW patients with unclear physical examination findings and in whom immediate surgical decisions cannot be made.