Are postoperative NLR and PLR associated with the magnitude of surgery-related trauma in young and middle-aged patients with bicondylar tibial plateau fractures? A retrospective study

BACKGROUND: The invasiveness of different surgical procedures is variable. The purpose of this study was to investigate the value of the postoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) as biomarkers in assessing the magnitude of surgery-related trauma in young and middle-aged patients with bicondylar tibial plateau fractures (TPFs). METHODS: A total of 136 young and middle-aged patients with bicondylar TPFs who underwent surgical treatment between May 2016 and April 2020 were included. Details about demographic information, pre- and postoperative laboratory data, and surgical variables were obtained from the electronic database of our level I trauma center. According to the different surgery programs, all patients were divided into two groups: group 1, which represented minimally invasive reduction and internal fixation (MIRIF), and group 2, which represented open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression and ROC curve analyses were used. RESULTS: The operative time, intraoperative tourniquet use, intraoperative blood loss, length of incision, postoperative NLR, PLR, RBC and HCRP were significantly different between the two groups (P < 0.05). In the multivariate analysis, postoperative PLR ≥ 223.9, surgical incision > 19.0 cm and operative time > 130 min were closely related to severe surgery-related trauma. The ROC curve analysis indicated that postoperative PLR could predict severe surgery-related trauma with a specificity of 76.0 % and a sensitivity of 55.7 %. CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative PLR appears to be a useful biomarker that is closely associated with magnitude of surgery-related trauma in young and middle-aged patients with bicondylar TPFs.