A comprehensive study of risk factors for post-operative pneumonia following resection of meningioma

BACKGROUND: Post-operative pneumonia (Pop) following meningioma surgery is the dominant systemic complication which could cause serious threats to patients. It is unclear whether hematological biochemical markers are independently associated with the Pop. This study attempted to perform a more comprehensive study of taking both clinical factors and hematological biomarkers into account to promote the management of patients after meningioma surgery. METHODS: We collected clinical and hematological parameters of 1156 patients undergoing meningioma resection from January 2009 to January 2013. According to whether the symptoms of pneumonia had manifested,patients were divided into the Pop group and the Non-Pop group. We analyzed the distinctions of clinical factors between the two groups. We successively performed univariate and multivariate regression analysis to identify risk factors independently associated with the Pop. RESULTS: 4.4% patients infected with the Pop (51 of 1156). The median age at diagnosis of the Pop patients was significantly older than the Non-Pop group (p = 0.002). There were strike distinctions of post-operative hospital stays between two groups, with 21 days and 7 days each (p < 0.001). On multivariate analysis, tumor relapse (p < 0.001), skull base lesions (p = 0.001), intra-operative blood transfusion (p = 0.018) and cardiovascular diseases (p = 0.001) were linked with increased risk of the Pop following meningioma resection. For hematological biochemical markers, it was the factor of Red blood cell distribution width-standard deviation (RDW-SD) (OR 5.267, 95%CI 1.316, 21.078; p = 0.019) and Neutrophils lymphocytes ratio (NLR) (OR 2.081, 95%CI 1.063, 4.067; p = 0.033) that could appreciably predict the Pop. CONCLUSIONS: Apart from tumor recurrence, localizations, intra-operative blood transfusion and cardiovascular diseases are independent risk factors for the Pop. We initially found hematological RDW-SD and NLR are also important predictors.