Investigation of the prognostic value of blood parameters in patients with rinoserebral mucormycosis

Mucormycosis is a rapidly invasive, life-threatening opportunistic fungal infection, usually in immunocompromised patients. Suspicion, early diagnosis, debridement and anti-fungal treatment are important prognostic factors. The most common clinical manifestations of rhinocerebral mucormycosis are fever, headache, facial and ocular oedema. Invasion of surrounding tissues, the eye, skull base and brain is critical for disease progression. The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictive value of blood parameters in patients with mucormycosis. The preoperative 10-day blood parameters of 23 patients with clinical, radiological and pathological diagnoses of mucormycosis were compared in terms of etiology, gender and site of involvement. When the results were compared, the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) on days 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10 was significantly higher in patients with skull base involvement compared to those without skull base involvement (p<0.05). When comparing the regions of involvement, a significant correlation was found between cranial and turbinate involvement and between lamina papricea and ocular involvement (p<0.05). It was suggested that the NLR rate could be predicted as a poor prognostic factor in patients with mucormycosis.