Our meta-analysis revealed that NLR was associated with long-term mortality after hip fracture surgery. Both pre- and postoperative NLR values were significantly higher in nonsurvivors than in survivors when the follow-up duration was > 1 year. However, our results also showed that NLR failed to predict short-term mortality within 30 days after hip fracture surgery in elderly patients.
Systemic inflammation, which can be reflected by NLR, is known to be associated with prognosis following hip fracture surgery [28]. Studies have reported a similar pathophysiology of systemic inflammation and acute inflammatory markers, such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and IL-10, which are associated with outcomes after hip fracture [13, 29]. In addition, elevated CRP and ferritin, which are common inflammatory markers determined in routine clinical practice, could successfully predict 30-day mortality after hip fracture [28]. However, the economic and easily accessible NLR has potential in clinical use for predicting the mortality risk following hip fracture surgery in elderly patients. This meta-analysis provides comprehensive evidence on the strong correlation between a higher NLR value and mortality risk following hip fracture surgery, offering a significant reference in clinical decision making.
In addition to indicating systemic inflammation, NLR may also reflect general health condition, such as activity of daily living, comorbidities, and nutritional status [20, 30, 31], which are crucial to the prognosis of hip fracture and its survival [32]. In a study, NLR was associated with the nutritional status. It can be a useful nutritional marker for evaluating the nutritional status of geriatric patients [33]. Inflammation was hypothesized to reduce albumin levels through reduced synthesis, increased catabolism, and translocation of albumin to extravascular pools [34]. Lower NLR level was reported to be correlated with higher albumin level and health outcomes in patients receiving hemodialysis [35]. Moreover, low serum albumin level is a sole indicator of the increased risk of in-hospital death, postoperative complications, and total mortality after hip fracture surgery in elderly patients [36]. Therefore, higher baseline NLR in geriatric patients with hip fracture may indicate poor baseline nutritional status and thereby a higher mortality risk following hip fracture surgery.
In postoperative patients with hip fracture, major cardiovascular disease is a risk factor for high mortality [20], which may be indicated by the NLR value. Systemic inflammation plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of cardiogenic shock. In these patients, high neutrophil count was characteristic and associated with increased mortality after myocardial infarction. It was also a marker for larger area of infarction [37]. Neutrophilia may be the result of hypercholesterolemia through complicated mechanisms of enhanced granulopoiesis, mobilization from the bone marrow, and decreased clearance. The high inflammatory activity due to these interactions can lead to atherosclerotic plaques becoming unstable and prone to rupture, resulting in a cardiovascular event [38]. Peng et al. revealed that NLR is a more sensitive independent prognostic biomarker in patients with myocardial infarction than the neutrophil or lymphocyte percentage alone [39]. Patients with hip fracture are at an increased risk of both myocardial infarction and stroke up to 1 year following the hip fracture [40]. This fact can explain the finding that patients with hip fracture having higher baseline NLR may be prone to cardiovascular risk, resulting in higher mortality than patients with relatively lower baseline NLR.
In our meta-analysis, NLR was a significant predictor of long-term, rather than 30-day, mortality after hip fracture surgery in elderly individuals. The discrepancy in the weight of NLR as a predictor of short- and long-term mortality following hip fracture surgery in elderly patients may attribute to the causes of death at different postoperative time points. The most common causes of death in 30-day mortality was respiratory failure, followed by cardiac failure [41]. However, the most common cause of long-term mortality following hip fracture surgery was cardiovascular disease, followed by infectious diseases [41, 42]. Considering that NLR is a sensitive, independent prognostic biomarker in patients with myocardial infraction [39], it is sensible to associate its significance for long-term, rather than 30-day, mortality following surgery for hip fracture in this meta-analysis. On the contrary, the small number of studies included in this meta-analysis could have caused the high heterogenicity, resulting in the nonsignificance of the association between the NLR and 30-day postoperative mortality. Therefore, more evidence is warranted to clarify the discrepancy in the predictor value of NLR for the short- and long-term mortality following hip fracture surgery in elderly individuals.
NLR was associated with systemic inflammation, nutritional status, and cardiovascular risk, likely affecting the survival of elderly patients after hip fracture surgery. However, these factors were not excluded or adjusted in all the eight studies included in this meta-analysis. Thus, we could not determine which of these factors resulted in high NLR or had multifactorial associations. In a well-controlled study including patients with hip fracture, Ozbek et al. [16] found no difference in the NLR level between the deceased and survival groups. This implies the need to clarify NLR as an independent predictor of mortality risk in geriatric patients with hip fracture. To the best of our knowledge, this meta-analysis is the most extensive study investigating the association of NLR with mortality following hip fracture surgery. In addition, our study included some data points that were adjusted for potential confounding factors, making it more reliable than an individual study. With knowledge of NLR as a potential prognostic factor, clinicians can adopt a stratified care approach by prioritizing geriatric patients with hip fracture at a high risk of mortality for intensive care [43].
Limitations
There are several limitations of this meta-analysis. First, although the association between the NLR and mortality risk after hip fracture surgery was clear, we failed to find a uniformed cutoff value with acceptable sensitivity and specificity due to lack of sufficient data. Second, mortality rates varied among studies, which may be attributed to the variations in baseline characteristics of enrolled patients in each study, resulting in heterogeneity in our reported outcomes. Age, sex, comorbidities, surgical delay, cognitive impairment, and poor renal function at presentation are important confounders and should be controlled at baseline to clarify NLR as an independent predictor of postoperative mortality in future studies. Third, all included studies were retrospective trials. Therefore, selection bias, recall bias, and other biases should be considered, which may also cause heterogeneity in pooled outcomes. Last, the large ethnic diversity and small sample size may cause sampling error. However, according to a statistical study, small sample size may or may not cause a noticeable bias in MDs as we expected [44]. Further studies with larger populations and a sufficient patient number are required to validate our study results.