Preoperative Systemic Inflammatory Marker Profile in Surgically Treated Intradural Spinal Tumors: A Retrospective...

Background and Objectives: We aimed to determine whether preoperative systemic inflammatory markers derived from complete blood count differ between patients with intradural spinal tumors and healthy controls, and whether any such difference varies by pathological subtype or motor deficit status. Materials and Methods: Sixty-four patients who underwent surgery for histopathologically confirmed intradural spinal tumors between 2015 and 2023 were enrolled alongside 64 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), pan-immune-inflammation value (PIV), and red cell distribution width (RDW) were calculated from preoperative complete blood count results. Comparisons were performed at the patient-control level and stratified by pathological diagnosis (meningioma, schwannoma, ependymoma, other) and motor deficit status. Results: NLR (median 2.47 vs. 2.06; p < 0.001), PLR (157.1 vs. 121.0; p < 0.001), SII (706.1 vs. 595.0; p = 0.003), and PIV (404.2 vs. 287.0; p < 0.001) were all significantly elevated in the tumor group, while LMR was significantly lower (3.66 vs. 4.34; p < 0.001). RDW did not differ between groups (p = 0.420). Stratification by pathological subgroup and motor deficit status revealed no significant differences in any marker. Conclusion: Intradural spinal tumors-including the predominantly benign cases that made up most of this cohort-are accompanied by a detectable preoperative shift in systemic inflammatory markers, one that appears independent of tumor histology and neurological presentation. These findings demonstrate a measurable systemic inflammatory response in patients with intradural spinal tumors. However, the absence of differences across pathological subtypes and motor deficit status suggests that these markers reflect a generalized host response rather than tumor-specific characteristics, and their role in clinical decision-making remains to be clarified.