Utilization of Neutrophils-to-Lymphocytic Ratio as a Marker for Post-operative Pain in Patients Undergoing Harmonic Cholecystectomy A Single-center Study

Abstract

Objectives: Our study aimed to investigate the pre-operative neutrophils-lymphocytes ratio (NLR) in patients who underwent cholecystectomy and to identify whether it discriminates between chances of developing pain or not and at what interval. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a single center in Saudi Arabia over a period of 2 months. Analysis was conducted using SPSS 22nd edition; numeric variables were presented in mean ± standard deviation and compared using the Mann–Whitney U-test after normality testing. Results: The study included 69 patients diagnosed with acute cholecystitis and underwent cholecystectomy. The minimum identified NLR in our study was 0.3 and the maximum identified variable was 15.0. Highest sensitivity and specificity were found to be 93.8% and 24.5% after 36 h of performing the procedure, respectively. Conclusion: NLR utilization as a pain marker post-operatively has promising outcomes which will highly impact the reduction of disease burden on patients.

Keywords

• gallbladder; laparoscopic cholecystectomy; pain; surgery