NLR as a Prognostic Tool in Orthopaedic Surgery in Elderly Extra-Articular Hip Fracture: A Significant Increase in NLR 24 Hours after Surgical Intervention

Abstract

Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was developed as a diagnostic and prognostic tool in many medical conditions, and its use is spreading as a predictor of postoperative outcome in orthopaedic surgery. The aim of this study is to investigate the improvement of NLR 24 hours after surgical intervention in a cohort of 91 patients (F/M = 68/23) with hip fracture who underwent femur intramedullary fixation. Patients were 84.7 ± 7.9 years old, and the mean hospital stay was 13.4 ± 4.7 days, with a mean delay to surgery of 1.9 ± 1.4 days. A significant increase in NLR between baseline (T0) and 24 hours after surgical intervention (T1) was observed in the study sample overall and on subgroup analysis by gender. Nevertheless, no significant effect of NLR on the length of hospital stay was observed.