Prognostic importance of red blood cell distribution width in patients with glioma: A meta-analysis

The present study aimed to investigate whether red blood cell distribution width (RDW) was an independent prognosis factor for patients with glioma after surgery. Potential studies were found in four databases including PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and the Cochrane Library on 21st July, 2022. To evaluate the prognosis after surgery, hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were pooled to calculate the overall survival (OS) of patients with glioma. Stata V16.0 software was used for data analysis. A total of 8 studies were included, involving 1,468 patients. After collecting and analyzing the data, RDW was demonstrated to be a prognostic factor for OS of patients with glioma (HR=1.51; I²=0.00%; 95% CI, 1.29-1.74; P<0.01). Patients with high preoperative RDW levels had a high risk of poor survival after neurosurgery. High preoperative RDW levels may be associated with poor prognosis and warrant further clinical attention.