Comparison of Postoperative Results With Prognostic Nutritional Index for Lumbar Disc Herniation

TL;DR

This study shows that patients with a lower nutritional index have worse post-surgery outcomes for lumbar disc herniation.

Contribution

The study empirically links the Prognostic Nutritional Index to postoperative complications and hospital stay duration in lumbar disc herniation patients.

Findings

Patients with a PNI <50 had higher rates of postoperative complications and longer hospital stays.

The PN group had significantly higher steroid use and collagen disease rates compared to the WN group.

Body mass index was significantly higher in the well-nourished group.

Abstract

Introduction: The prognostic nutritional index (PNI) is an immune-nutritional index simply provided by a blood test. We retrospectively compared the postoperative outcomes of patients with lumbar disc herniation divided into two groups according to the PNI.

Materials and methods: Seventy-three patients who underwent surgery at our hospital were included in the study. All patients had herniation between one of the L3/4, L4/5, or L5/S intervertebral discs and underwent one posterior lumbar interbody fusion. These patients were divided into two groups: patients with a PNI of <50 (poorly nourished (PN) group) and patients with a PNI of ≥50 (well-nourished (WN) group). Evaluation items included patient background characteristics, operative time, blood loss, postoperative complications, and length of hospital stay.

Results: The results showed that the body mass index was significantly higher in the WN group than in the PN group (p=0.0221). The rates of collagen disease, steroid use, and postoperative complications were significantly higher (p=0.0475, p=0.0073, and p=0.0211, respectively) and the length of hospital stay was significantly longer (p=0.021) in the PN group than in the WN group.

Conclusion: In conclusion, this study indicates that postoperative complications and the length of hospital stay are significantly worse in PN patients than in WN patients.