Relationship between NLR (Neutrophil/Lymphocyte ratio) value and clinical outcome in patients with external ventricular drainage due to intraventricular hemorrhage.

Background: Intraventricular hemorrhages (IVH) are common pathologies in neurosurgery practice and are associated with the worst clinical outcome among all intracranial hemorrhages. Blood in the ventricles is thought to worsen the clinical condition by triggering inflammatory processes. In recent years, NLR value is a frequently used inflammatory parameter, and there are many publications reporting that a high NLR value is an important marker in predicting the severity of inflammation. Our study aimed to evaluate the effect of NLR values at admission on the clinical outcome of patients undergoing EVD due to IVH in our clinic.

Material and methods: In our study, age and gender data, admission Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), NLR value at the time of admission and clinical status at discharge of 36 patients, who underwent EVD following IVH in our hospital neurosurgery clinic between 2019 and 2024, were examined.

Results: Of the 36 cases in our study, 16 were female and 20 were male. For all cases, the mean age was 61.88, and the mean GCS values at admission were calculated as 8.5. In the laboratory of our hospital, the normal NLR range was determined as 0.78-3.53, and the mean NLR values at admission were evaluated as 16.57. When the clinical outcomes of the cases were examined, it was seen that 30 cases ended with exitus after intensive care follow-up, and 6 cases were discharged with good clinical outcomes (GCS:15). The mean NLR value was calculated as 18.00 for the patients who ended with exitus and 8.12 for the patients discharged with good clinical outcomes.

Conclusion: NLR, which has been used to determine the severity of inflammation in recent years, has been reported to be a marker that can predict clinical outcomes of many diseases. In our study, NLR was observed to be high at admission in all cases, but it was significantly higher in the cases ending with exitus than in the cases not ending with exitus. As a result, it is thought that NLR value is a parameter that can be used to predict the clinical course in IVH patients undergoing EVD.