[Preoperative lymphocytes as a factor related with delayed healing in hip surgery]

Historically, only substantial nutritional deficiencies have been recognized on time in surgical patients due to the technical difficulty of making the diagnosis. Preoperative nutritional assessment with biochemical and immunologic variables helps detect patients with malnutrition. The purpose of our study was to find out the role of the lymphocyte count in the preoperative complete blood count as a factor associated with delayed healing in hip surgery, and thus detect the patients at risk of complications.

A study was conducted in patients undergoing hip surgery, from December 2008 to May 2009, and who were followed-up at the outpatient service.

A total of 48 patients were assessed; 21 patients (43.8%) underwent surgery due to an orthopedic condition, and 27 (56.3%) due to trauma. Lymphocyte counts included a minimum of 200 and a maximum of 9,600. Twenty-six patients had lymphocytes < 1,500 with healing ranges from 10 to 30 days, and 22 patients had a count > 1,500 with healing ranges from 10 to 25 days. No differences were found in gender or in the traumatic or orthopedic condition. There was a statistically significant difference in favor of the group with lymphocytes > 1,500 cells/mm3.

A strong relation was found between delayed healing and patients with lymphocytes < 1,500 cells/mm3.